Divergent Circle Version 2
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: A chance discovery by the EAS Prometheus leads to a sequence of events that will change the destiny of the galaxy forever.
1. Chapter 1

**Divergent Circle Version 2**

Authors Notes: After reviewing this story again prior to working on the next chapter I've come to the conclusion that it's in need of a relatively minor makeover, before it can continue, especially considering the events that transpired towards the end of Battlestar Galactica season four. To this end I'm going AU from the events at the start of the fourth season premier He That Believeth In Me.

* * *

_**Chapter One**_

Commander Alan Chaffin, first officer of the Earth Alliance starship _Prometheus_ frowned slightly at the odd readings that had just appeared on his scanner display. _What in the world,_ he thought studying what the ships advanced sensors were trying to tell him all the while wondering why they had to pick up something like this now, considering what their mission was. _Prometheus_ and the small task force of ships accompanying her were now only two jumps away from the territory of the mysterious Minbari, travelling along a part of Alliance territory that was dominated by the looming multi-coloured mass of the Eye – a massive nebula complex that spanned several sectors and marked the border of known space and the unknown and barren regions towards the edge of the Orion arm of the galaxy.

The _Prometheus_ was the newest Hyperion-class heavy cruiser in Earth Force, many of her systems were a massive improvement over any of her sisters, multiple systems like her fusion reactors, some of her weapons and especially her sensors were partially reverse engineered from captured Dilgar technology giving them greater range and better accuracy than those on her sister ships. And now a short distance inside the perimeter of the Eye they'd picked up a series of strange spatial distortions and energy discharges that almost read like opening jump points but were far to brief to be any known form of jump point.

"Captain," he called out turning his chair slowly and carefully in the zero-gee environment of the ship to look up and over at _Prometheus' _proud master Captain Michael Jankowski. Chaffin didn't really want to serve under the man; Jankowski was known to be something of a carrier minded opportunist, a loose cannon that couldn't always be trusted to follow his orders. But Alan was far to career minded to turn down the chance to serve on Earth Force's newest and most advanced cruiser. Enduring service under Jankowski for one or two years was a sure ticket to a command of his own, possibly even command of one of the new heavy battlecruisers Earth Force was developing to replace the aging Nova-class dreadnoughts.

"What is it, commander," Jankowski asked looking over at his new first officer, Chaffin hadn't been his first choice for the role – he'd so wanted to pinch John Sheridan off that old fool Sterns – but he was good enough. At least from what he'd seen of the younger mans performance so far.

"Sensors have detected a series of strange energy and spatial distortions a short distance inside the perimeter of the nebula," Chaffin reported. "They read almost like jump points opening inside the nebula, however they are far too brief in duration to be jump points as we understand them."

Jankowski raised an eyebrow. "Can you detect any vessels," he asked in curiosity.

Chaffin carefully checked the sensors again. Radiation from the stars forming deeper inside the massive nebula complex reduced the penetrating power of the sensors but he could see well enough to see approximately forty vessels of various sizes.

"I'm picking up approximately forty vessels of varying size inside the nebula, unknown configuration," he reported. "They appear to be holding position."

Jankowski frowned slightly in concern. A fleet of unknown ships appearing in the Eye so close to Jericho and the other new colonies on the edge of Earth Alliance territory was not good, especially if they were warships with hostile intentions. Forty vessels was a sizeable attack force that would cause major problems for everyone around here, with the possible exception of the Yolu, the mysterious Minbari and the even more enigmatic Vorlons. For a moment he wondered if the unknown ships were Dilgar – there had been rumours for the last twenty years that a fleet of Dilgar ships had fled their empire before Earth Force and various League forces drove the Dilgar all the way back to Omelos and confined them there, unknowingly to die when their home star went nova.

A shiver went down his spine at the thought that after twenty years the Dilgar could be back. He'd been a young lieutenant in the Dilgar War and to this day had the occasional nightmare about the horrors the cruel cat-like humanoids had unleashed upon the galaxy. Who knew how many ships could possibly have escaped the Dilgar Imperium prior to its defeat and ultimate destruction, and what horrifying new weapons they'd come up with in the intervening decades. The border colonies only had minimal defences – certainly defences that weren't strong enough to repel an attack by an enemy whose technology rivalled the Centauri's.

"Communications, contact the other ships. Tell them we are changing course," Jankowski ordered. "Navigation will you plot an intercept course into the nebula, bring us in off the bow of that fleet.

"Aye, sir," the lieutenant manning the navigation station reported before working with his colleagues elsewhere on the ship to plot the desired course.

"Sir are you sure this is wise," Chaffin felt compelled to ask. "We only have three warships and our orders…"

"This is a clear potential threat to Earth Alliance security commander," Jankowski replied. "We will investigate this first, the Minbari can wait they will still be there when we're done."

"Yes sir."

* * *

With quiet grace that almost belied there blocky, angular forms the small explorer division came around. The task force of two Hyperion-class heavy cruisers, one older model Nova-class dreadnought and a single exploration ship came about and glided in towards the nebula. Intent on in investigating just who it was who could be a potential threat to their vulnerable border colonies.

* * *

**Combat Information Centre**

**Battlestar Galactica, A Few Moments Earlier**

Admiral William Adama blinked away spots from in front of his eyes as with an audible humming sound _Galactica's_ power systems came back to life and the main lights came on flooding the battlestars nerve centre with light. Moments ago when they'd jumped in almost every single system on the ship had shut down with the exception of life support and artificial gravity.

"Dradis contact," Gaeta abruptly called out as over the map table the dradis screens flickered briefly, washed with static then came on at full resolution. Five large angry red dots could be seen, bearing down on the cluster of green dots that marked the position of the fleet. "Massive Cylon fleet on an intercept course," Gaeta added with a clear note of alarm and fear in his voice.

The fear was understandable. Five Cylon basestars and their accompanying swarms of Raiders was a force not to be trifled with lightly. It was a force that was more than sufficient to destroy a single old battlestar and the ragtag fleet of civilian ships that she was protecting. Between the heavy capital missile batteries on the basestars and the missiles and kinetic energy weapons carried by the Raiders the Cylon battle group had enough firepower to blast the entire Colonial Remnant out of the stars in very short order. And there would be little or nothing that the _Galactica_ could do to stop them; which left William Adama and the fleet with only one choice, the only choice they'd really had since the destruction of the Twelve Colonies by the Cylons three years before.

And that choice was to run.

"I want an emergency jump for the whole fleet," Will ordered.

"Sir, all fleet ships were powered down during the outage," Karl 'Helo' Agathon reported grimly from where he stood in the place normally occupied by Saul Tigh. "It will take at least twenty minutes for everyone to spool up their FTL drives."

"We just don't have twenty minutes," Will replied feeling a pronounced sense of dread settling on him like a smothering blanket. The Cylons had them this time; it didn't look like they were going to get out of this one. He faintly heard the sound of Gaeta calling the crew to action stations and ordering the launch of every available Viper.

At that moment Colonel Saul Tigh came running into CIC from wherever else he had been on the ship and looked up at the dradis display. His one remaining eye widened in horror at what he saw, the Cylon fleet was bearing down on them with the arrogant confidence of someone who knew that they had there enemies well and truly at their mercy. In moments they would be within range of the basestars missile batteries, and when that happened all hell would break loose. _How the hell did they find us,_ he thought then inwardly shivered at the revelation that he, Tory, Tyrol and Anders had only just come to, the revelation that they were Cylons. _Did we somehow cause this,_ he thought.

"Oh frak," he said softly looking at the horrifying spectacle of death moving towards them.

"Basestars launching Raiders," Gaeta reported as dozens then hundreds of small red dots appeared as each of the basestars began launching its full compliment of Raiders. "New dradis contact, single fighter to our stern."

"What," William said looking over at Gaeta in surprise even as the overhead speakers crackled to life with an incoming transmission.

"_Galactica_, Apollo," Lee Adama abruptly said. "I've got the bogey on my ten o'clock am moving to investigate."

"What the frak is he doing in a Viper," Saul asked.

"It doesn't matter now," Will replied, he didn't have to wonder why Lee was in a Viper though he was no longer an officer in the Colonial Fleet; Lee had heard the alert, read the tone of Gaeta's voice when he'd ordered alert status and jumped in what had been his Viper to help in the only way he could. He would have done the exact same thing in Lee's position. "We need every pilot we've got out there. Saul scramble every bird that we've got, everything that can fly, any pilot whose ever held a stick get them out there. Dee put Lee on speakers."

"Yes sir," Dee replied.

"Hello, Lee," a female voice said from the speakers, a voice no one had ever expected to hear again. A voice from the past, belonging to someone who was supposed to be dead. The voice was that of Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace.

"Kara," Lee replied sounding as shocked and disbelieving as everyone in CIC. "No this is crazy, I saw you… your fighter blew up."

"Afraid not, I've been to Earth, I know the way. And I'm going to take us there."

"Authenticate her ship ID," Will ordered a second before new contacts appeared on the dradis display.

"New contacts," Gaeta reported. "Four ships have just appeared on dradis, there heading this way on an intercept course. Configuration… configuration unknown."

"What," President Laura Roslin breathed before looking up at the dradis display with Adama and Tigh. Sure enough four yellow dots were approaching the fleet at slow speed. There appearance appeared to have caught the Cylons by surprise as well as the wall of red that had been advancing on the fleet came to a dead halt in space.

"Incoming transmission from the unknown ships," Dee called out.

"Put it on speakers," William ordered.

"Yes sir," Dee replied before carrying out the command. The overhead speakers crackled then a strange background humming sound, the transmission crackling with the power that was behind it, came from the speakers followed by a deep, masculine voice speaking words that rocked everyone in CIC to the core.

* * *

**EAS Prometheus**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Captain Michael Jankowski frowned at the tactical display; he didn't like the looks of this situation one bit. The initial scans had resolved into two distinctly different groups of ships, one looking battered and tired headed by a single large ship that looked like it had been through hell. The other a pristine looking group of five large star shaped warships that were disgorging scimitar shaped fighter craft, towards a screening force of dart like fighters.

"It looks like we've stumbled into someone else's war," he said softly. "Mr Chaffin, what do our sensors make of those ships?"

"The first group of ships appear to be almost entirely unarmed ships sir," Chaffin reported as he studied the sensor readings. "And one large warship, the warship is armed with a large number of kinetic energy weapons; they look like some sort of rail or coil guns and a small number of nuclear missiles. No energy weapons of any known kind detected. Life signs… sir the life signs on all the first group of ships read as Human."

Jankowski's eyes widened slightly in astonishment and he turned his head to look at Chaffin. "Confirm that?" he ordered.

Chaffin rechecked the sensors though he had already done so twice, mostly to assure himself that he was not seeing things. "Confirmed sir," he reported. "Life signs are human; I read just over thirty-nine thousand separate signatures. Some of the ships seem to be in quite a bad way, there is an awful lot of stress on their spaceframes, engines and power systems. My guess is they've been travelling through space far longer than they were ever intended to… okay that's odd."

"This whole thing is odd, commander," Jankowski replied. "What have you found?"

"Sir there doesn't appear to be jump engines on any of the ships, not even on the warship."

Jankowski frowned. "Then how did they get all the way out here without jump engines," he asked. "There are no jump gates beyond this nebula, their signals would have long ago been picked up if their were."

"Unknown sir, sir the second group are targeting the first group. Sensors read multiple missile tubes opening."

"What can you tell me about the second group?"

"The second group of ships is substantially more advanced that the first group. All five warships are powered by some sort of nuclear fission reactors – though there pumping out far more energy than that kind of power source is normally capable of generating. They appear to have some sort of gravimetric engines. Armaments appear to be entirely missile based exact nature unknown. Sensors read only minimal armour for the size of the ships and there is a lot of empty space inside them, especially in the radial arms. My guess is their some kind of missile cruiser/heavy carrier hybrid. Life signs are confusing, the ships themselves appear to be giving off life form readings but they don't appear to be organic."

"Stranger and stranger," Jankowski said thoughtfully. "Either way we cannot let this happen, we can't just sit by and let whoever are on those ships slaughter largely unarmed people. Communications have you been able to identify their stellar comm. frequencies?"

"I'm afraid not sir," communications reported. "However I am picking up radio transmissions between the first group of ships, analysis shows there speaking a language that has not been spoken in thousands of years."

"And that is?"

"Ancient Greek," communications replied.

Jankowski blinked in surprise, these people whoever they were spoke a language that Humans hadn't spoken in thousands of years. It only added to the mystery of what is going on here. "Can you broadcast on the same frequency in the same language," he asked.

"I believe so; it might be a little rough."

"Then open a channel to both groups on as many frequencies as possible."

"Aye sir, channel open."

"Attention unknown vessels," Jankowski said. "This is Captain Michael Jankowski of the Earth Alliance starship _Prometheus_. You are engaging in hostile actions near Earth Alliance territory, on the authority of Earth Force Command you are hereby directed to cease your actions and stand down immediately. If you fail to comply with this order we will be forced to consider you hostile and will respond accordingly."

* * *

**Combat Information Centre**

**Battlestar Galactica**

Stunned silence reigned in the _Galactica's_ command centre as the sound of Captain Jankowski's words faded, but only for a moment. Then an excited hubbub started as the command centre crew all began talking at once, after all this time, after all they'd been through in the last three years they had at last encountered ships of the Thirteenth Tribe. Ships that were demanding that both themselves and the Cylons – especially the Cylons – stand down.

"Everyone quiet," William ordered raising his voice slightly to be heard over the noise. Instantly silence descended upon the room as the dradis display changed, showing the Cylon basestars and some of their Raiders breaking off their approach and advancing towards the Earth ships.

"Admiral Cylon forces are changing direction," Gaeta reported. "There targeting the Earth Alliance ships."

"The Cylons are going to blow them right out of the sky," Tigh said softly, inwardly he was ashamed at the beings he now knew to be his own kind and what they were about to do. The Thirteenth Tribe were innocent in the conflict between the Twelve Colonies and the Cylons they shouldn't be drawn into there war.

"Dee open a channel to the _Prometheus,_" Will ordered.

"Cylon baseships launching missiles, twenty, forty no a hundred and twenty missiles heading for the Earth ships," Gaeta reported a note of sorrow in his voice.

"Lords of Kobol protect them," Roslin said softly, though she knew very little about military tactics she knew that a hundred and twenty high explosive ship-to-ship missiles against a mere four ships was more than a touch of overkill.

* * *

**EAS Prometheus**

"Vampire, vampire, vampire, multiple missiles inbound," Commander Chaffin called out as the threat analysis screen of his station went crazy. "I count a hundred and twenty missiles targeted on us and the rest of the group. Sensors read some sort of high explosive warheads, exact composition unknown, unable to calculate blast yield."

"Interceptors fire," Jankowski ordered. "Launch Starfuries target incoming missiles. All forward guns target the closest hostile ship and open fire."

* * *

From gun arrays mounted along there gun metal grey hulls the _Prometheus_ and her companion ships came alive, spewing out bolt after bolt of superheated plasma from their interceptors on specific trajectories, aiming at the massive storm of projectiles bearing down on them. Combing their fields of fire the Earth Force ships created a virtual storm of energy in space that blasted towards the missiles, searing through the dust and gasses of the nebula as they did so creating a brilliant lightshow as they did so.

Rapidly tracking interceptor bolts began slamming into missiles, punching them into haze balls of rapidly dispersing, disassociated ions. Missile after missile died, vanishing in momentary bursts of flame as the kiss of superheated plasma sent them to their doom, but the sheer volume of missiles fired by the Cylons worked against the interceptors.

Breaking through the storm of energy flak three missiles impacted the side of the _Prometheus_ exploding on contact with the cruisers electronic defence web. Brilliant fireballs momentarily blossomed on the side of the Hyperion-class ship, before fading revealing no damage to the thick armour plating, the electromagnetic fields of the e-web having dispersed the heat and explosive force of the high explosive warhead over a larger area of the hull resulting in a minimal amount of damage.

Even as the _Prometheus_ shuddered under the impact, her compliment of six Aurora-class Starfuries scrambled from her flight bay and her massive main armament opened up. The heavy plasma cannon just back from the cruisers prow on the dorsal side along with her port and starboard laser cannons fired a twin bolt of blue-white superheated plasma along with two slender red beams of pure energy shot away from the cruiser towards her enemy.

Moving far faster than the plasma bolts the lasers struck the closest basestar first, smashing into one of the massive ships lower radial arms with searing force. Cylon armour immediately began heating up as the concentrated beams of energy disrupted molecular bonds causing the bio-metallic alloy that the Cylons built their ships from to begin to melt. The lasers shut down revealing two glowing molten scars on the basestars where its outer armour belt had been partially penetrated. Then the blast from the heavy plasma cannon arrived, smashing into the same section of the radial arm, already compromised the outer armour layer had no chance against the blast of superheated material, the remaining armour vaporised allowing some of the plasma to punch through to claw at some structural supports and the secondary armour band over the inner hull before its fury was spent.

Even as the Cylon basestar rocked with the impact of the first assault, the lasers struck again, cutting right through the secondary armour band and into the organic material underneath. The living flesh of the organic computer systems threading through the basestar like a nervous system vaporised as the lasers began to cut there way through the radial arm, eating through flesh and bio-metallic bulkheads alike. Secondary explosions erupted as fuel cells and oxygen supply lines ruptured, sending a plume of gas fed flames into space as the lasers once again shut down, only for another heavy plasma round to streak into the gap blown in the hull and explode inside the ship, flooding dozens of sections on dozens of decks in the arm with matter so hot, so energetic that it was on the very threshold of energy conversion. Tertiary explosions spread along the radial arm as fuel, ammo and atmosphere ignited steadily tearing the arm apart. Structural integrity hopeless compromised and wracked with fires and explosions the damaged arm snapped off the basestar like a rotten tooth and continuing to break apart tumbled away into the clouds of the nebula trailing gas fed flames.

The main guns of the _Prometheus_ spoke again, slamming more heavy plasma bolts and laser blasts into the better armoured core of the basestar. The _Enola Gay _the companion cruiser to the _Prometheus_ joined in the onslaught; both Hyperion's peppering the basestar with heavy firepower the likes of which the basestar had never been designed to withstand, and which was steadily ripping it apart. In a testament to Cylon ship building the basestar weathered the storm for three long seconds before critical systems detonated and hull members collapsed and the ship came apart, disintegrating in a massive series of explosions that sent shrapnel from its destruction flying in all directions.

* * *

**Combat Information Centre**

**Battlestar Galactica**

A cheer went around the CIC as the crew observed the complete destruction of a Cylon basestar in mere moments by the Earth ships. To a soul everyone was enjoying watching the Cylons taking a pounding at Human hands for a change.

"Sir Cylon Raiders are completely breaking off their engagement with our Vipers," Gaeta reported keeping his eyes focused on his dradis display. "There advancing towards the Earth ships."

"Makes sense now that the Earth ships have shown how sharp there teeth are," Tigh said thoughtfully a second before radiological alarms went off.

"Cylon basestars launching more missiles, targeted at the Earth ships," Gaeta called out. "Conventional and nuclear warheads. Reading a hundred missiles, eighty conventional and twenty nuke."

"Helo instruct half our Vipers to pursue and engage the Cylon Raiders," Adama ordered. "Instruct the other half to form a defence perimeter around the fleet. Dee try and get me a comm. link with the _Prometheus_ I need to speak with Captain Jankowski."

"Yes sir," Helo replied and picked up the phone on the side of the map table.

"Yes sir," Dee echoed a moment later.

"What are you planning, Bill," Saul asked his old friend softly.

"We can't jump yet, Saul. Our only choice is to stand and fight," Adama replied.

"There doesn't appear to be any other choice," Roslin agreed. "And we have to help the thirteenth tribe against the Cylons."

"Even though they seem to be quite good at pounding the Cylons without us," Saul said not at all unhappy at seeing Cylons dying. Though he now knew he was a Cylon himself he was first and foremost Colonel Saul Tigh of the Colonial Fleet, XO of the battlestar _Galactica_. That was who he chose to believe he was not some stinking Cylon skin job.

"We still have to help them, colonel," Roslin pointed out. "The Thirteenth Tribe has just been pulled into our war, if we want there help and there protection then we need to help them now."

"True, madam president. Very true."

* * *

The massive salvo of missiles from the remaining four Cylon basestars streaked through space towards the Earth warships at high speed, as if determined to reap revenge for the destruction of the fifth basestar and the temporary deaths of the hundreds of Cylons onboard. Raiders followed behind, preparing to volley their own shorter range missiles upon the Earth ships when they came into weapons range themselves.

Immediately the sensors on the Earth Force vessels detected the nukes imbedded amongst the salvo of conventional explosives. Automatic threat analysis systems cut in and redirected priority interceptor fire at the thermonuclear weapons. Once again Cylon missiles began dying, punched into balls of hazy disassociated ions by raw plasma. But the sheer volume of incoming missiles began to overwhelm the interceptors and as quick and accurate as the Earther point defence was they had no chance of shooting down all the missiles before they reached their targets.

A single surviving nuke slammed into the side of the _Enola Gay_ and detonated enveloping the ship in the searing heat and energy of a fifty megaton thermonuclear explosion. Armour vaporised allowing the raging energy and hard radiation into the interior of the ship, vaporising crew and equipment in a millisecond of time, before flash heating the jelled deuterium tanks that fuelled the ships fusion reactors to the point of detonation.

The _Enola Gay_ ruptured wide open and vanished in a brilliant fireball that merged with the flash of the nuclear blast, blinding sensors on all sides for several moments. When the fireball faded there was nothing left of the _Enola Gay _or the five hundred and fifty-six souls aboard her, beyond a dispersing cloud of dust and radioactive debris.

* * *

**EAS Prometheus**

For a few Captain Michael Jankowski stared at the expanding debris cloud that was all that remained of his companion cruiser in horrified disbelief. Then he got angry as he thought of all the people who had just died, the souls snuffed out in a blaze of nuclear fire. _So that's how you want to play it then, well two can play that game you murdering bastards,_ he thought glaring at the four star shaped alien warships before toggling the communications switch on the arm of his chair.

"Bridge to firing control," he said. "I'm authorising the use of tactical nukes, load tubes one through four with ship to ship fusion missiles."

"Aye sir," firing control replied a moment before a series of explosions rocked the _Prometheus_ as a dozen Cylon missiles exploded against her flanks simultaneously, overloading the e-web's dispersion capacity resulting in carbon scoring starting to appear at the points where the missiles had struck the ships six metre thick armoured hide.

"Multiple direct hits," Chaffin reported. "The e-web is down. Minor damage to the outer armour, interceptors are running hot, eighty percent capacity and dropping. We're going to get a lot more of those."

"Firing control to bridge, missile tubes one through four are ready to fire," firing control reported over the comm.

"Fire," Jankowski ordered.

* * *

A soft shudder ran through the _Prometheus _as powerful electromagnetic launch rails hurled four missiles into space from tubes located on her underside. Each missile was tipped with a ten megaton nuclear fusion warhead, the moment they cleared their tubes the missiles own engines activated adding to the inertia imparted by the launch so they shot away from the heavy cruiser towards the new enemy that was slowly pecking her apart. The salvo split apart into a two pronged attack as their seeker heads confirmed a target lock.

The Cylons immediately detected the nuclear warheads bearing down on them. In milliseconds the hybrids that were the central processing units of the basestars computed all possible impact vectors. Missiles with specialised warheads roared away from all four basestars even as another of their number shuddered in agony as a massive volley of eight twin heavy plasma bolts and six laser beams from the Nova dreadnought _Persia_ ripped into and through one of its upper radial arms tearing it apart in a single massive salvo and sending destructive secondary and tertiary explosions rippling through the rest of the warship. The _Persia's_ heavy twin plasma cannons fired again and again in the murderous, rapid, rain of firepower that had made the Nova-class dreadnought one of the most feared warships of any of the younger races, pounding the wounded basestar steadily tearing its hull apart. Overwhelmed by the _Persia's_ fury the basestar disintegrated in a massive, fiery explosion.

As the glare of a second basestars explosive death faded the salvo of defensive missiles exploded scattering shaped shrapnel in dense clouds in the path of the fusion warheads launched by _Prometheus_. The smart seeker warheads of the Earth Force missiles immediately detected and registered the danger but it was too late. All four missiles impacted the shrapnel clouds and detonated into billowing plumes of plasma from the kinetic force imparted by the high speed impacts.

* * *

Jankowski scowled as he saw the destruction of their missiles on the tactical display. _Shrapnel clouds,_ he thought with grudging respect for his adversaries, _damned clever trick._

"Captain we're getting a hail from the warship protecting the first group of ships," communication's reported a moment before the ship rocked as half a dozen fighter launched missiles impacted on the starboard side despite the best efforts of the outnumbered Starfuries and overtaxed interceptor grid to stop them.

"Starboard interceptor banks three and four are out," Chaffin reported even as two more missiles detonated against their armour. Sparks shot out of an overtaxed power conduit at the back of the bridge. "Those last two hits have taken out our starboard laser cannon. Outer armour integrity at sixty-three percent, twenty percent power loss in starboard sections three, four and five on decks nine through twelve. We can't stay here much longer sir; the enemy are pecking us to pieces."

"I'm aware of that, commander," Jankowski replied waving a hand at the thin haze of smoke that was beginning to filter into the bridge, even as yet more missiles impacted jolting the ship with ever more violence. Powerful as his ship was he knew full well that the sheer volume of missile firepower being directed at them would be their doom if they stayed here much longer. "Communications put the contact on speakers."

"Aye sir."

The overhead speakers crackled then a powerful male voice spoke. "This is Admiral William Adama of the Battlestar _Galactica_ to the Earth Alliance starship _Prometheus_, respond please," the voice said.

"Admiral Adama this is Captain Michael Jankowski," Jankowski replied as half a dozen hits in rapid succession rocked the ship, triggering more sparks from power conduits as the blasts against the hull sent shockwaves ringing through the vessel, rattling memory crystals and chips and causing power surges all over the cruiser. "We cannot stay here much longer," Jankowski continued. "What is the status of your ships? Can you escape?"

For a moment there was silence. "Negative," Adama answered. "The FTL drives on the bulk of our ships are still off line and we can't leave them here."

Jankowski thought quickly as more blasts rocked the _Prometheus_ and a new alarm began to sound, an alarm that made his blood run cold as it was the alarm that all spacers dreaded. It was the alarm warning of a hull breach.

"Hull breach starboard section four deck five, internal bulkheads buckling in adjoining sections," Chaffin reported. "Dropping pressure doors."

"Navigation adjust our position to keep them off our starboard side. Commander, are our jump engines online," Jankowski asked. "And can we open a jump point in this nebula?"

"Yes sir we can," Chaffin said as manoeuvring jets fired altering the position of the _Prometheus_ so her forward undamaged portside faced the Cylons, turrets rotated and continued firing plasma bolts at the fighters swarming between them at the warships. "Its not recommended but we can do it," Chaffin continued.

"Admiral Adama," Jankowski said into the comm. "We're going to move close in to your fleet and open up a jump point. We'll hold it open if you can instruct your ships to go through into hyperspace one ship at a time"

"What is hyperspace," Adama asked sounding honestly curious. Jankowski blinked in surprise. These people knew nothing about hyperspace? What else did they use to bypass the restrictions of Einsteinium space time and make space travel viable? It would be interesting to find out but that could wait until later. Right now they had to escape before they were destroyed; a fact that was reinforced by another series of violent shudders as more missiles exploded against the ships hull.

"It's complicated but the simple answer is hyperspace is another dimension where spatial distances are shorter than in normal space," Jankowski replied. "Its perfectly safe to travel through as long as your ships stay together and wait for us to join you, if you try to navigate there on your own you'll become hopelessly lost."

* * *

**Combat Information Centre**

**Battlestar Galactica**

William Adama frowned slightly at what he was told about this hyperspace, it sounded quite dangerous and he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk taking the fleet into it. When he thought about it he released he didn't really have a lot of choice but to trust this Captain Jankowski, after all the man was fighting to save them and taking a hell of a pounding in the process.

"We don't have a choice but to trust them," Roslin said softly seeing how the admiral was torn.

"The president's right, Bill," Saul Tigh added. "The Earth ships are being steadily swamped with Raiders and missiles, they'll be destroyed soon and then we'll be next. Though the Earth ships have destroyed two of the basestars and some of the Raiders there's still to many Cylons out there for us to defeat. We have to trust this Captain Jankowski, our only other option is to stay and be destroyed."

William sighed and nodded agreement before speaking into the microphone. "Alright captain we'll do as you suggest," he said.

"Excellent," Jankowski answered, his voice punctuated by what sounded like an explosion in his command centre. "We'll approach your fleet now and open up the jump point. We can only hold it open for a finite amount of time so your ships will have to go through as quickly as possible and stick close together on the other side."

"Understood," William answered before putting the microphone down and glancing up at the dradis display and seeing the large blue allied dots that represented the Earth ships changing position and coming towards the mass of green dots of various sizes that represented the fleet.

"Dee inform the fleet to get into a single line formation," he ordered. "Advice all Vipers to screen them, and tell Apollo to keep a close eye on Starbuck until we can authenticate her ID. Navigation move us to the back of the line, we'll cover the withdrawal."

"Yes sir," came the replies from the various stations.

* * *

The two remaining Earth warships and the exploration ship, _Magellan,_ that had been hanging back, using its limited defences to swat any Cylon Raider or missile that came to close to it, came around and headed for the Colonial Remnant, aft cannons opening up, unleashing fresh plasma salvos that blasted Raider after Raider from the heavens and occasionally managed to reach and strike the basestars, inflicting punishing damage to the Cylon capital ships. The handful of surviving Starfuries also flipped over and added fire from their weapons to the onslaught while continuing to retreat.

Ahead of them the Colonial Remnant awkwardly arranged itself into a line of ships, screened by _Galactica's_ Vipers. The battlestar for her part moved to the back of the line and turned so her powerful dorsal gun batteries were trained on the Cylons.

Slowly the range wound down and then the _Prometheus, Magellan _and _Persia_ were passing over the battlestar, continuing to fire on the Cylons with their aft batteries raining streams of plasmatic destruction on their enemies. For the first time since the battle had begun the _Galactica_ opened up, filling space with a lethal hail of projectiles that ripped into the pursuing swarm of Raiders like a swarm of locusts into a corn field. It did about the same amount of damage as the scimitar shaped Raiders shattered and exploded under the hail of kinetic death.

The rest of the Raiders veered away to the flanks, hoping to outflank the battlestar and hit the vulnerable civilian ships she was protecting. While out of the _Galactica's_ gun range the staggering but still largely functional and thus dangerous, Cylon basestars began launching additional volleys of missiles all of them focused on the Colonial fleet. Though this battle had been costly to them the Cylons – with the determination that only machines were really capable of – were still determined to wipe out there enemy before they could escape.

* * *

**Lee's Viper**

Lee Adama grinned as he pulled the trigger on his stick and sent a salvo of railgun rounds tearing through a Cylon Raider. The machines right wing snapped off and for a second the Raider drifted – spewing blood from its organic components, then its fuel and oxygen store detonated turning it into a brief lived fireball.

Part of him was glad to be back here in the cockpit of a Viper, it felt like this was where he belonged. Especially now that Kara Thrace had apparently returned from the dead, an event that sent shivers down his spine. It brought back the memory of what Major Kendra Shaw had tried to tell him before the Guardian basestar was destroyed, that Kara was somehow dangerous. Delighted as he was to see Starbuck alive again he would be sure to keep a close eye on her, as he couldn't discount the possibility that she was and always had been one of the final five humanoid Cylons that Athena had warned them about in the past. As hard as that possibility was to stomach.

Looking around he spotted Kara blowing another Raider out of the heavens, one that had been angling to lob missiles into the side of _Colonial One_, an action that would have wiped out most of the Remnant's government with the exception of President Roslin. Two more Raiders angled towards Kara intent on blowing her out of the sky. He started to open his mouth to issue a warning when both Raiders exploded as blue-white bolts of energy from one of the Earth ships bizarre X-shaped fighters tore into them.

"Whoever that was, thanks," Starbuck said over the radio.

"Anything for a fellow stick jockey," an unfamiliar voice with an accent that sounded like a combination of Gemonese and Caprican replied.

Lee smiled slightly and was about to add in a comment about Starbuck having a new admirer when something happened that took his breath away. Ahead of the fleet a glowing orange vortex burst into existence, it was strangely beautiful to look at, a swirling whirlpool of energy that seemed to lead into infinity.

For a moment nothing happened then the smallest of the three Earth ships entered the rift and seemed to vanish in the shimmering energy field. Resolutely leading the way _Colonial One_ followed and also seemed to disappear as it passed through the glowing centre of the vortex. One by one the other ships began to follow, with the Earth ships standing sentry, occasionally picking off a Raider with a bolt from their formidable weapons, weapons that appeared to Lee to be some kind of coherent energy or plasma blast – a weapons technology that Colonial science had long thought impossible but which obviously wasn't anymore. Glancing back at the _Galactica_ Lee scowled when he saw half a dozen missiles explode along the old battlestars back, even as she slowly came around to follow. _Come on dad,_ Lee thought as the badly battered and battle scarred warship came around and started to head for the vortex herself, her few aft facing guns pounding out heavy flak to keep the Cylons off her tail.

Abruptly Lee's helmet radio crackled with an all channels broadcast. "All Vipers, _Galactica_ begin proceeding into the vortex," Dee's voice said.

"Rodger that," Lee replied as the Vipers began following the civilian ships into the vortex, though strangely Kara's Viper just sat in space. "Starbuck, Apollo what are you doing? Follow the fleet into the vortex."

"This is wrong we can't do this," Kara answered. "We're going wrong I know it, this isn't the way were supposed to go."

"Save it for later, Starbuck," Lee replied. "Just get in formation, or do you want to stay here and be blown to a zillion pieces by the Cylons?"

"This is wrong, Lee we can't do this," Kara insisted sounding almost hysterical.

"Kara go through the vortex," Lee repeated allowing a note of irritation to creep into his voice.

"No we can't we have to…"

"NOW, KARA," Lee shouted angrily. "Or so help me I'll shoot you myself."

"Get in line, Apollo," Sam Anders answered as his Viper appeared beside Kara's.

"Sam," the surprise in Starbuck's voice would have been comical if the situation had not been so serious. "What the frak are you doing in a Viper?"

"It's a long story, Kara," Sam answered. "I'll tell you later, that is if you're coming."

"Alright, alright I'm coming," Kara said. "But I still don't like this."

"No one's asking you to now get going," Lee snapped.

"Okay, okay keep your shirt on, Apollo."

Despite himself Lee grinned. That was Starbuck through and through; true to her word her Viper got moving and vanished into the vortex following the last of the civilian ships. Lee took a deep breath before guiding his Viper towards the glowing orange funnel and heading inside. As he crossed the threshold there was a momentary sensation of falling then suddenly he was in a space that was very different.

Instead of the shifting clouds of gas and dust of the Ionian nebula this place was a dark red and black vista that seemed to go on forever. The red and black areas seemed to waver, shimmer and shift location constantly making it impossible to lock onto anything long enough to get his bearings. It was disorientating and it was all he could do not to throw up into the helmet of his flight suite. To prevent that he locked his eyes on the closest civilian ship, making it his anchor.

"Is everyone alright," he asked over the squadron command frequency.

"Yeah but this place is really weird," Hotdog replied. "I feel like I want to be sick."

"Focus on the civilian ships, make them your anchor," Lee instructed. "That should help."

"Copy that, Apollo."

Glancing down at his dradis display Lee saw the alligator-like form of the _Galactica_ appear behind the fleet. Followed moments later by the other two Earth warships the fuzzy mass of the energy vortex evaporating seconds after they cleared it. _Well looks like we're committed now, but to what,_ he thought a moment before his radio crackled with a private channel.

"Lee?" his father's voice said.

"Yes, dad?" Lee asked repressing the instinct to respond with a 'yes sir' as his father wasn't his superior officer anymore.

"Bring 'Starbuck' aboard," William answered. "Take her straight to the infirmary so Cottle can examine her."

"Do you think she could be a Cylon?"

"I don't want to believe it son but we have to consider that possibility."

"It's occurred to me as well. I'll make sure she goes straight to the infirmary."

"Good. We will meet you there." The communications link closed down with a hiss of static. Lee sighed before switching back to the squadron's frequency.

"Starbuck we've got orders to report back to the _Galactica_," he said.

"Lead on then, Apollo," Kara replied sounding like she had expected the summons to come sooner or later.

Lee didn't answer her further; instead he turned his Viper around and headed for the _Galactica_'_s_ port flight pod. Starbuck matched the manoeuvre and side by side the two Vipers headed into land.

* * *

**EAS Prometheus**

Captain Michael Jankowski relaxed once they were in the relative safety of hyperspace. The battle was over, but he suspected it was the first of many to follow. Something told him that whoever it was on the star shaped warships would come looking for Earth and start a new war. A war that Earth Force was more than ready for as their fleet was even larger and stronger now than it had been when they had fought and defeated the Dilgar twenty years ago.

"Set course back to Jericho base," he ordered. "Are all the Colonial ships with us?"

"Yes sir," Chaffin confirmed.

"Good. Communications tell the Colonials to follow us and to stay in as close a formation as possible, after what we've gone through to get them here I don't want to loose anyone to the hyperspace tides."

"Aye sir."

"Then establish a Gold Channel connection to Earth Force Command, I need to speak with General Lefcourt. He needs to know we may have just started a war."

"Aye sir."

"We've saved thirty nine thousand lives sir," Chaffin pointed out. "Whether we've started a war or not we're heroes for saving so many from certain death."

"Yes so why don't I feel like one," Jankowski asked softly thinking about the _Enola Gay_ and all the people who had died with her. People whose lives he as fleet commander had been ultimately responsible for. The fact that they had died for a noble cause and wouldn't have felt any pain as their existence was snuffed out in milliseconds of nuclear fire offered him no comfort.

Chaffin didn't answer, their was no answer he could give. So instead he turned back to his station and got back to the never ending tide of work that first officers on warships had to deal with.

* * *

**Cylon Basestar**

**Ionian Nebula, That Same Time**

Silence reigned in the smoke filled haze of the command centre of the Cylon basestar that had been the command ship for the fleet intended to wipe out the Colonial Remnant once and for all. The gathered humanoid Cylons had just watched their erstwhile quarry flee into a strange energy distortion unlike anything they had ever encountered before, a distortion generated by the powerful Earth warship that had called itself the _Prometheus_.

"Well it seems that things have now changed for us," Cavil said breaking the silence at last. "And it appears I owe you sixes an apology the Thirteenth Tribe is real after all."

"Apology accepted," a auburn haired Six who referred to herself as Natalie replied. "Though we take no pleasure in being right. It appears that the Thirteenth Colony is considerably more advanced than the other twelve were. Defeating them will be a challenge."

"Yet the Earth ships at first glance appeared to be very primitive, aside from a very high power reading," Aaron Doral pointed out. "Our scans revealed no artificial gravity system that we could detect and ion engines that are nearly eighty years out of date by Colonial standards."

"Yet their weapons are far more advanced than has ever been thought possible," Leoben added looking deeply concerned and a little confused by the apparent contradiction. "Sensor records confirm our ships were hit by lasers and some kind of powerful focused plasma energy bolt, types of weapons that our bio-metallic armour is not designed to withstand, as evidenced by all the damage we've sustained and the destruction of two of our baseships."

For a moment there was silence in the room, all the assembled models lost in their own thoughts. This battle had been very costly to them for very little reward. The destruction of one Earth warship for two basestars and dozens of Raiders was not a good exchange, even though the lives of the Cylons and the limited sentience of the Raiders was not lost for good as they were within range of a Resurrection Ship. What if promised for the future was also not particularly good, especially if the Thirteenth Tribe was as powerful as their warships appeared to be.

"So what do we do now," Simon asked.

"We must continue in our search for Earth," Cavil said. "The Human race must be eliminated if we are to flourish."

"The destruction of two basestars for one Earth ship tells me that objective is going to be more difficult than we ever imagined," Natalie answered. "But God is testing us, testing our faith in him. We cannot turn away from this, the greatest test he has ever set for us."

"We agree," Cavil replied and he did agree but for different reasons than Natalie. The sixes like the threes had long been deeply religious – a flew that there particular models seemed to have, a flaw that had already seen the threes boxed. The reason he was agreeing was more pragmatic, they had to destroy the Humans before the Humans destroyed the Cylons. The catastrophe of New Caprica had proven that the galaxy was not big enough for the two of them. For the survival of the Cylon race to be assured the Humans had to be eliminated and it was as simple as that.

"We do not really have a choice," the number eight once known as Boomer added. "If we do nothing then we will still eventually end up dealing with the Earth Alliance as Admiral Adama and President Roslin rally them against us. Either we find and destroy them now, or they will destroy us later."

"What say the rest of you," Cavil asked.

For a moment there was silence as each model in the room polled all the others of their particular model on all three surviving baseships. At least those who were not already involved in critical repairs or assisting the Centurions and damage control units in fighting the fires that were burning in a number of sectors on all three ships.

"We agree," Leoben said at last. One by one the others all nodded their agreement.

"Then it is decided," Cavil said. "We find this Earth Alliance and destroy it."

"By your command," the others replied in the a-typical Cylon response to a decision being made. A decision that though they didn't know it yet would have profound and long lasting implications for the future of both Humans and Cylons.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

**EAS Prometheus**

**A Short Time Later**

Captain Michael Jankowski was deep in thought as he floated down the corridors of the _Prometheus_ with the kind of effortless grace that only came with long experience of manoeuvring in zero gravity. He was heading to his quarters to inform General Lefcourt and Earth Force Command of what had happened at The Eye. The encounter with the fleet of unknown ships that appeared to be crewed by Humans – though where they'd come from he had absolutely no idea, though he suspected that the prank loving Vree had something to do with it, considering their history of abducting Humans in the past and doing all sorts of uncomfortable but generally harmless experiments on them – and the unknown missile loving alien antagonists. Aliens who'd destroyed the _Enola Gay_ with all hands, along with a number of Starfuries and inflicted considerable damage to both the _Prometheus_ and the _Persia_.

The destruction of the _Enola Gay_ would not sit well with Command, he knew that and it would probably become a catalyst for war against there unknown new adversaries. Just as the destruction of the _Persephone_ had been the catalyst that had first gotten them into the Dilgar War. _The problem is this time we know nothing about the enemy, who they are, what they want, and more importantly where their worlds are,_ he thought, _that's going to make it difficult to give them the pounding they deserve. Hopefully this Admiral Adama and the other people we saved today will be able to give us some answers._

Arriving outside his quarters he entered his access code and went inside. His computer terminal was illuminated and bleeping with a 'gold channel ready' message as he arrived, manoeuvring carefully in the confined space – on a heavy cruiser like this one there was not a lot of space for anything given how much they had to pack into the hull – he moved into a vertical position in front of it. Then put his feet on the stick pad and felt the underside of his boots stick to the Velcro surface.

He took a deep breath to compose himself before speaking. "Open gold channel," he said.

"Please state identity and authorisation code," the calm female voice of the _Prometheus _main computer responded instantly.

"Jankowski, Captain Michael. Authorisation code six, zero, four, two, four, foxtrot, alpha one," Jankowski replied in response to the standard security check

"Identity confirmed, gold channel access granted, stand by."

For a moment more nothing happened then the message disappeared from the screen to be replaced by the face and torso of General Robert Lefcourt sitting in his office with bright winter sunshine shining in through the veiled windows. He noticed the general wasn't in his normal uniform but was instead in full dress uniform, clearly either having returned from or going to some important function in Earth Dome. _Rather him than me,_ he thought, _I hate wading into the gladiatorial pit that is politics. Give me a pack of raiders or marauding alien bandits over senators and their aides any day._

"This better be important, captain," Lefcourt said trying to sound stern though there was a faint hint of relief in the general's eyes. "I just had to tell the Defence Oversight Committee that I have to reschedule our meeting to take this call."

"I'm sorry, sir. But I think you will agree that what I have to report is extremely important to the security of the Alliance," Jankowski replied.

"Go on."

"Sir I have to report a Code Sabre contact situation."

Lefcourt's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed slightly in concern. Code Sabre was a case that had not been used by the Earth Alliance since the early years of the Dilgar Invasion of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. It dealt with a case of encountering refugees being chased and attacked by unknown hostile forces. The last time it had been used the name Dilgar had been just that to Earth, a name. Before wading into the battle with the Dilgar to prevent a galactic bloodbath Earth had had little to no contact with the cat-like humanoid race and had possessed little information about them beyond the fact that they had been technologically advanced and xenophobic.

"You were ordered to avoid a first contact situation," Lefcourt said firmly, while inwardly he was sighing wondering what Jankowski had done now. He was well aware of the mans reputation as a loose cannon – something further enforced when he'd spoken to one Lieutenant Commander John Sheridan who refused point blank to serve with Jankowski.

"Yes sir I know that," Jankowski answered. "And it wasn't planned; we were on our way to the Minbari border to conduct our scans when our sensors picked up some strange energy and spatial distortions followed by the appearance of spacecraft inside The Eye.

"Given the Eye's proximity to our border colonies I immediately ordered that we change course to investigate. When we arrived we encountered a refugee fleet, a fleet full of Humans."

"What! None of our colonies have been attacked by anyone, who are they and where did they come from?"

"We don't know, sir. And what's more confusing is they speak Ancient Greek. They had a single battered and battle scarred warship – a battlestar they call it – called the _Galactica_ commanded by an Admiral William Adama with them, apparently protecting them. But five other warships were there as well, when we sent a message to stand down that second group turned towards us and opened fire."

"They did what! Who were they," Lefcourt asked livid wondering who it was who had dared to attack a group of Earth Force ships. It certainly couldn't be one of the local races; none of them would have dared do such a thing, even the Centauri – arrogant fan heads though they were –would think at least twice before tangling with a fleet of Earth Force ships as Earth's wrath was not something to be courted lightly, as the Dilgar had found out the hard way.

"We don't know who they were," Jankowski replied. "Our sensors couldn't get clear readings on them beyond the fact that the ships themselves read as life forms while not appearing to be organic. Other than that all we know is that they are extremely aggressive and have an unhealthy love affair with missile weaponry. They unleashed more missiles – including some with nuclear warheads – on us than I've ever encountered in combat before, we fought back and destroyed two of their capital ships but not before a nuke struck and destroyed the _Enola Gay _with all hands. With mounting damage we were forced to withdraw from battle, but we took the refugee fleet with us into hyperspace."

"I see," Lefcourt replied with deceptive calm, while inwardly he was seething with rage at the deaths of the five hundred and fifty-six Earth Force soldiers on the _Enola Gay._ "Where are you taking the refugees now?"

"We're heading back to Jericho Four, sir. We need repairs and our scans of the refugee ships show that many of there systems are on their last legs and there is evidence of immense amounts of stress on their spaceframes. Commander Chaffin believes that wherever they've come from they've been running for along time, pushing their ships well past there design limitations to keep going."

For a moment Lefcourt was silent. "I see," he said. "Very well I will tell General Newman to expect you. You will have to stand before a board of enquiry for this one, Jankowski. But you did the right thing going to the aid of those refugees."

"Yes, sir I understand," Jankowski replied and understand he did. The board of enquiry was something everyone who'd lost a ship had to go to, he just hoped none of his enemies and rivals managed to get themselves put on the board. He felt guilty enough about the deaths of the _Enola Gay's_ crew as it was, even though he knew they had died doing their duty and protecting fellow Humans from harm. The last thing he wanted or needed was some politician with their own agenda raking him across the coals for it.

"Good. In the meantime I want you to meet with this Admiral Adama, find out everything you can about the ships that attacked you and who they belong to," Lefcourt said.

"Aye, sir I'll make the arrangements as soon as this channel is closed down."

"Excellent. Contact me the moment you know something."

"Aye, sir."

"Good luck, captain," Lefcourt said then broke the connection from his end. The general's face vanished from the screen to be briefly replaced by the seal of the Earth Alliance before the normal computer screen returned.

"Fade," Jankowski ordered and immediately the screen went dark as the terminal went into stand by mode. For a moment he studied the blank screen, before tapping the comm. link on the back of his right hand. "Bridge, hail the _Galactica_. Tell them I would like to arrange a meeting with Admiral Adama immediately."

"Aye, sir," communications answered.

* * *

**Earth Force Command**

**Earth Dome, Geneva, Earth**

General Robert Lefcourt sighed after closing down the gold channel connection with Captain Jankowski and grasped the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. It was an anxious habit of his, one he'd never been able to shake off no matter how hard he tried. And right now the cause of his anxiety was the war that Jankowski had probably just started – though his intentions had been purely humanitarian at least so they appeared. _How do we fight an enemy whose forces are of unknown strength and deployment,_ he thought, _whose worlds we haven't even heard rumours about? What has Jankowski gone and gotten us involved in?_

After a moment he sighed again and lowered his hand. The situation they were faced with was far from ideal, the very last thing Earth was looking for was another war. No one in there right minds hoped for a war. Though it appeared now that they were going to face one whether they wanted to or not. Whoever had been chasing that refugee fleet was almost certain to come after them. Especially as the refugee's we're Human. _And it will be interesting to find out where they came from and why they speak a language that's been dead for thousands of years,_ Robert thought, _but first things first._

Reaching out he touched his comm. panel. "This is General Lefcourt get me General Newman at Jericho Base," he said. "Then contact the president's office and inform them that I need to see the president on a matter of the utmost urgency."

"Yes sir, stand by."

* * *

**Hanger Bay**

**Port Flight Pod, Battlestar Galactica**

**A Few Moments Earlier**

Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace found herself experiencing conflicting emotions as her Viper was pulled into its docked position on _Galactica's_ hanger deck by a tractor. On one hand she was experiencing excitement and jubilation as she'd accomplished the mission that Admiral Adama and President Roslin had set for them from the moment they'd fled the smouldering ruins of the Twelve Colonies after the Cylons attempt at genocide. She'd found the way to Earth and knew how to get them there.

On the other hand she also felt alarm and wrongness – they'd gone wrong following the so called 'Earth' ships into this strange other space, this wasn't the way to Earth, wasn't the way they were supposed to go. The feelings were strange, uncomfortable and overwhelming and seemed completely inexplicable. The 'Earth' ships had pulled the fleets tail out of the fire – literally. The Cylons had had more than enough firepower back at the Ionian Nebula to blast the entire fleet to scrap – and complete there genocide – in short order. One of their fighters had saved her from being blasted out of space by a pair of Raiders she knew she should be grateful to them for doing both of those things. But she wasn't, the feeling of wrongness was overwhelming all of that, and she knew she had to somehow convince the president and the old man that they had gone terribly, terribly wrong without sounding completely and utterly insane.

The Viper came to a halt. _Well here I go,_ she thought popping the canopy and slipping off her helmet – which a waiting deckhand immediately took from her – before climbing out of the fighter. Silence greeted her on the hanger deck, all around deck crew and landed pilots were gazing at her with a mixture of shock, disbelief and suspicion. She looked at them in confusion, she had only been gone for a few hours, yes her little jaunt hadn't been exactly authorised by the admiral but that shouldn't have created this kind of reaction. The way that they were looking at her sent a shiver down her spine and made her feel like the temperature of the atmosphere inside the flight pod was dropping to match that of the space beyond the armoured hull of the battlestar.

The sound of approaching footsteps broke the oppressive, graveyard silence and she glanced over to see Lee approaching with her husband a few steps behind him. It was downright odd to see Sam in a Colonial Fleet pilot's jumpsuit, and to see him wearing the wings of a fully qualified Viper pilot. It didn't make sense, there was no way that Sam could have learned to fly a Viper, let alone well enough to fly in combat, in just a few hours.

Both men reached her before she had chance to rectify what she was seeing and experiencing with how long she had been gone in her head. Lee was the first to envelop her in a bear hug, holding her tightly for a few moments as if afraid to let her go. After a few moments and satisfied that he was indeed holding a person – though whether she was really Kara Thrace was still an open question – he let her go and Sam enveloped her in an even tighter bear hug, the hug of someone who had missed her terribly.

"Kara," Sam said softly in his wife's ear, while inwardly wondering if what he felt for Kara was real or if it was just something he'd been programmed to feel. He liked to believe it was the former, but since the revelation of his true nature as a Cylon he couldn't be sure of anything anymore. "Gods I've missed you," he continued before pulling back from her, and seeing the bemused look on her lovely face.

"Okay what's going on," Kara said. "I'm gone for only a few hours and…"

"A few hours," Sam repeated incredulously as he was gripped by a sudden, uncomfortable suspicion. _Gods is she like me, is she a Cylon to,_ he thought. "Kara you disappeared in that storm over two months ago."

"We believed you were dead," Lee added a faint look of suspicion in his expressive blue eyes.

"Two months," Kara repeated staring at two of the most important men in her life as if they we're crazy. There was no way she could have been gone for that amount of time, for one she would have long ago run out of fuel and life support. "But that's impossible."

"Starbuck," a familiar powerful voice said coming from the upper level walkway. Turning in place Kara looked up to find Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh standing side by side on the walkway, gazing down at her.

"I did it boss," she said proudly. "I've been to Earth."

"Everybody back away," William Adama ordered as four marines in full body armour and with full weapons load out appeared at her sides. "Starbuck go with them to sickbay, Doctor Cottle is waiting to give you a thorough examination."

Kara frowned slightly growing more and more confused. Why was William Adama of all people treating her like he didn't trust her? It made no sense, unless she really had been gone for two months, in which case it was understandable that they wouldn't trust her. Hell they probably thought that she was a Cylon for miraculously coming back from the dead in the way she'd apparently done. As the understanding dawned on her she did nothing to resist the marines as they began escorting her off the hanger deck towards the closest crossover corridor to the battlestars central hull. She could only hope that Cottle got done with her quickly enough that she would be able to prevent the fleet from making a terrible, terrible mistake.

* * *

Leaning slightly against the safety rail Admiral William Adama watched as the marines escorted Starbuck out of the hanger deck towards the ships medical facilities. He found himself torn between conflicting emotions and thoughts at the sight of Kara Thrace seemingly back from the dead. On one hand he wanted to believe what he was seeing was the genuine article – that some miracle had occurred and brought Kara back to them boasting in typical Starbuck fashion that she knew the way to Earth.

But on the other hand other parts of him were warning him that this could all be some elaborate deception on the part of the enemy. As unpleasant as it was he had to consider the possibility that Kara could be a Cylon, it wouldn't be the first time someone he thought he'd known had turned out to be one of the things that had carried out the calculated, cold blooded murder of over forty billion people. Boomer was a ready reminder of the fact that Cylons could be anyone – especially as they didn't know what all twelve humanoid models looked like. Even Athena didn't claim to know the identities of the last few humanoid models the so called Final Five.

And then there was the way she'd behaved over the wireless when the Earth ships generated the energy vortex – he didn't know how else to describe the phenomenon – that had brought the fleet into this strange other space that Captain Jankowski had called hyperspace. The near hysterical behaviour, the virtual screaming that they were going wrong that they shouldn't do this, was most unlike the firebrand pilot who would have been his daughter-in-law if it hadn't been for the death of Zack. That coupled with her inexplicable means of survival and return to the fleet made him cautious about her, he wanted to know if she really was who she says she was before he even considered what she had to say. He knew it probably sounded paranoid but he hadn't kept this fleet alive for three years without learning to really air on the side of caution.

"Chief Tyrol," he called out shaking off his thoughts about Kara, at least for now.

"Yes sir?" Tyrol called up from the deck below stepping into his view.

"I want you to go over that Viper with a fine tooth comb," Will ordered. "Check everything, computers, components everything. Report anything out of the ordinary to me immediately."

"Yes sir," Tyrol replied.

"Everyone else attend to your duties," Will added, promptly turning the hanger deck back into its normal buzz of activity. From his position he saw Lee heading for the ladder up to the walkway but paid his son no mind, he would have to talk to Lee later, get his reactions and perceptions on what had just happened. Hopefully he would also be able to convince Lee to rejoin the fleet, as he recognised Lee had only left following his conscience and doing what he felt needed to be done to prevent them from loosing some essential part of their humanity in a quest for vengeance. Though talking with Lee about rejoining the fleet would have to wait.

"Do you think, Tyrol will find anything, Bill," Tigh asked.

"I don't know, Saul. But something isn't right here I can feel it," Will answered softly a second before a wall phone buzzed for attention. As Tigh went to answer it Lee appeared at his side. "What do you think, Lee?" he asked.

"I don't know, dad," Lee admitted knowing what his father was asking. "Though Kara seemed to be genuinely surprised when Sam told her that she's been gone for two months that could all be part of an act. Either that or she genuinely didn't realise that she was gone so long. I don't even see how she could still be alive as I saw her ship be torn apart by that gas giant storm with my own eyes.

"I don't know how she can be who she says she is," he continued. "Much as I hate to admit it its possible that she could well be a Cylon – maybe without even knowing she is, just like how Boomer didn't know till she shot you."

The senior Adama nodded in agreement, wincing as he remembered that incident in CIC a few months after the attack on the colonies when they'd found Kobol. Lt Valerii had just successfully completed a mission to nuke a Cylon basestar – he'd been congratulating her in person when she pumped two bullets into his chest at point blank range. Even now two and a half years on he still didn't remember quiet what happened between being shot and loosing consciousness, everything was a blur. The only thing he remembered clearly was Lee's horrified cries.

"I have to admit that I'm in the same frame of mind," he admitted.

"Bill," Tigh called out bringing the attention of both Adama's to him. "We've been hailed by the _Prometheus_; Captain Jankowski would like permission to come aboard to meet with you as soon as possible."

"Permission granted," Will replied, knowing he couldn't well refuse the request of the _Prometheus's _master, especially given how the man had pulled their tails out of the fire, losing one of his own ships in the process. Plus he knew Roslin wanted to meet with this Captain Jankowski, especially as he was apparently a representative of the long sought Thirteenth Tribe, though he would withhold judgement on that point himself, at least for now.

As Tigh turned to relay his reply to CIC Will turned to look at his son. "I would like you to be at that meeting," he said softly before noticing that Lee seemed distracted. "Lee?"

"Sorry, I keep thinking about what Kendra was trying to say before the Guardian basestar exploded," Lee replied. "Something to do with Kara being dangerous, I can't help wondering if she somehow knew about this."

"I remember," William answered as he recalled the incident that had taken place shortly after Lee was promoted to commander of the late battlestar _Pegasus_. "The transmission was badly garbled from Cylon jamming as I recall," he continued, "it was hard to make out precisely what she was trying to say."

Lee nodded. "Still it may have relevance," he said. "She may have seen something, something about Kara that we cannot."

"Maybe," Will conceded remembering what Lee's emotionally scarred, tough as nails first officer on the _Pegasus_ had been like before her death. "Either way we will soon know about Kara, I told Cottle to be very thorough in his examination. In the meantime we had better prepare for a meeting."

"You want me there, why?"

"Because you have the habit of seeing what is right in a situation and not letting emotion and prejudgements get in the way."

For a moment Lee was silent. "Alright," he said at last. "I'll be there. In the meantime I have an appointment with the showers."

With that Lee turned and walked away, heading back to the ladder to the hanger level below and the door that would lead to the pilots shower rooms. Will watched his son leave and wondered what Lee was going to do next. He hoped that Lee would decide to rejoin the military – as it was only following his conscience and strong sense of justice – which he'd apparently inherited from his grandfather – that had led Lee to leave in the first place so he could mount a proper defence for Baltar – even though the former president wasn't really worth it. They could certainly use Lee's impressive skills as both a pilot and a leader for whatever was to follow now that the Thirteenth Tribe had found them and literally pulled their tails out the fire.

Thinking about it Will had to admit that the Thirteenth Tribe looked to be in a good position to protect the Remnant, there weapons were obviously both very advanced and very efficient. The ease with which they'd destroyed two Cylon basestars in a few volleys was proof of that as it took railgun rounds sometime to damage basestars enough to destroy them. But he didn't want to rely on them – and knowing the Quorum members as he did he doubted they would either – and there was the fact that the Thirteenth Tribe really had no idea that they were now in a war for survival against an enemy that thought nothing about waiting for decades to lull there enemies into a false sense of security before striking.

_At least I can do something about that,_ he thought, _when Captain Jankowski comes aboard we'll have to tell him everything. Assuming I can get the president to agree to it._ Mentally sighing to himself he turned and left the hanger deck to head into the core of the ship and his quarters. If Captain Jankowski was coming he had better be proper attired in dress uniform – not matter how much he hated wearing the thing – and make what preparations he could for the Earthman's arrival. _This meeting has to go down well,_ he thought, _it has to._

* * *

**Elsewhere On The Galactica**

Kara Thrace felt the eyes of her shipmates on her as the marines escorted her through the maze of dimly lit trapezoidal corridors that made up the interior of the _Galactica_ towards the aging battlestars medical facilities – which were practically the only things on the ship that had been kept as modern and up to date as possible. She could almost feel there shock at seeing her alive along with there suspicion. It made her feel more than a little uneasy and only reinforced the thought that she had really been gone for _two frackking months_. Something that she knew should have been impossible, unless the wormhole in the storm that had sent her to Earth had been a conduit through time as well as space.

The thought of Earth – how beautiful it had seemed from space, how like Caprica it was though the continents had obviously been in a massively different configuration – brought a smile to her face. But only for a moment as the feeling that they had just made a terrible, terrible mistake in coming into this strange alternate space came back to her. She knew that this was not the way to Earth, that the so called Earth ships that had saved them back at the Ionian Nebula and brought them into this weird red and black realm were leading the Colonial Remnant to disaster. Quite how she knew that she didn't know she just knew it. _Though how am I going to convince the president and the old man of the truth,_ she thought, _given how the 'Earth' ships pulled our collective asses out of the fire at the cost of one of their own warships they're not going to want to alienate them._ Mentally she sighed softly. _I'll think of something,_ she thought, _I __**have**__ to otherwise everything we've been through over the last three years will be for nothing._

She was brought out of her thoughts by the arrival in sickbay. The moment she crossed into the room she was immediately assault by a cacophony of scents and sounds that were uncomfortably familiar. The life of a fighter pilot was a hazardous one and she'd ended up in here with injuries more than once, often enough in fact that she knew practically every sound and smell; from the bleeping of life support monitors, to the smell of the medicines and the familiar underlying scent of Cottle's cigarettes.

And speaking of Cottle the crusty old doctor appeared from off to the side where his office was, his attention having been grabbed by the sound of booted feet on the deck plates. The moment he saw her, the cranky old man froze, his face going as white as his hair and visibly stumbling backwards in disbelief. Inwardly Kara frowned at the reaction, it was yet another confirmation that she had been gone for far, far longer than she had believed.

Outwardly she gave no sign of her increasing unease; instead she gave the stunned doctor her normal, cheeky, patented half grin. "Hi doc," she said. "What's the matter? Cylons got your tongue?"

"Starbuck," Cottle replied softly, then shook his head. "No, no this can't be. You can't be here. Your dead, I filled in your death certificate myself."

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," Kara answered.

"So I can see," Cottle replied in his normal tone before taking note of the armed marines that had come in with Starbuck, apparently escorting her. He noted that they both appeared to be somewhat distrustful of the woman in front of them, obviously thinking that Starbuck wasn't really Starbuck but some Cylon skin job that they just hadn't encountered before now. He guessed that was why she was here and hadn't just been thrown straight into the brig or tossed out of the nearest airlock to die in the freezing vacuum of space. Her identity needed to be confirmed as did her exact nature.

"Take a seat over there," he said pointing to a free bed. "One of the orderlies will be along in a moment with some clothes for you to change into. Until my examination is complete and preliminary test results have come back you will remain here in sickbay."

Kara scowled. "Do I have to," she asked as like anyone with an ounce of sense she hated spending time in Cottle's kingdom, preferring to keep her visits as brief as possible. Being confined her for awhile was annoying at the best of time. Now if she was forced to stay here it would only increase the peril that she knew the fleet was heading into.

"Yes," Cottle replied. "You will remain here until I say you can go. If you try to leave before hand then the marines will stop you. Is that clear?"

"As crystal," Kara answered with an unhappy sigh.

"Good now over you go."

Kara sighed again but did as she was bid. It took only a few steps to enter the indicated cubicle, and she drew the privacy curtain so she could get out of her flight suit. Not that she was worried about being seen naked, she was a seasoned Viper pilot in the Colonial Fleet – privacy even for officers was rare to come by beyond the command level personnel such as Colonel Tigh and Admiral Adama – she was well used to other people seeing her naked. It was just that she wanted some time to gather her thoughts on what she was going to do now. _I just hope this doesn't take long,_ she thought, _if Cottle takes to long then I'll have to take matters into my own hands. I have to convince the old man and the president that we need to get out of this weird other space and away from the 'Earth' ships while we still have a chance. _

Mentally sighing to herself she continued undressing all the while trying to workout how to get out of sickbay and to the old man without being shot dead by marines. It would be difficult as if she failed she would likely be labelled a Cylon and booted out the nearest airlock or Viper launch tube. But she was sure she would be able to accomplish it if she should need to. Indeed she was certain that if it came to a choice between risking her life to convince the admiral of the truth and sitting here and waiting then she'd choose the latter.

After all she had no other choice.

* * *

**President Levy's Office**

**Earth Dome, Geneva**

**A Few Minutes Later**

Earth Alliance President Elizabeth Levy listened with growing anger, concern and confusion as General Lefcourt outlined the events that had so recently taken place inside The Eye. The fact that Captain Jankowski was involved in them did not surprise her one bit, she was fully aware of mans reputation and herself had questioned the wisdom of sending him on a mission to the Minbari border.

Now in away she was glad that she had been persuaded to let him go. Career minded and powerfully politically connected as he might be, Jankowski wasn't entirely a fool. He wouldn't have gotten the command of such a powerful weapon as the _Prometheus_ if he'd been incompetent – such political appointments regardless of actual ability were the purview of the Centauri not of Earth Force and EarthGov. Jankowski's actual training had come to the fore for once and he'd done his duty in going to investigate something that could have been a very serious threat to Earth Alliance security. What he'd found was surprising, concerning and more than a little infuriating; a refugee fleet packed with Humans about to come under attack by a force of five warships of unknown configuration and origin. Warships that according to _Prometheus's _scanners were both organic and non-organic at the same time and which seemed to bristle with missile armament.

From what General Lefcourt said Jankowski had again followed procedure and attempted to get both sets of ships to stand down their weapons and not wage a battle so close to the Outer Colonies. The demand to stand down had been met with an immediate and violent response from the five warships. From the report she gathered that the ensuing confrontation was brutal and very bloody and which had escalated to the point where the alien antagonists used nukes and destroyed the cruiser _Enola Gay_ with all hands.

As the general finished Elizabeth found herself gripped by conflicting emotions. On one hand she was incensed beyond words that the aliens had destroyed the _Enola Gay_ with all hands – a act that almost certain to lead to war between the Earth Alliance and whoever the aliens were. But on the other she was relieved to hear that Jankowski had saved the refugee's and not lost anymore of his warships to their new foe. The question now was who were the aliens, where had the refugees come from, and why were they speaking a language that had not been spoken on Earth in thousands of years?

"Where is Captain Jankowski taking the refugees," she asked at last.

"He is taking them back to Jericho Four madam president," Lefcourt replied. "I have already alerted General Newman to prepare to tend aid to the refugee fleet. I've also ordered Captain Jankowski to meet with this Admiral Adama and see if he can find out some more information about these unknowns."

"Good," Levy replied. "But where does this leave us, general? What does it mean for our security?"

Lefcourt sighed. "To honest madam president it is somewhat worrying," he admitted. "We have no knowledge about this new enemy, we do know there ships are quite advanced given the fact that the propulsion systems on their capital ships appear to be based on some sort of gravitic technology."

"Gravitic engines," Levy repeated. "You mean like the engines on Centauri vessels?"

"No ma'am. Though Centauri warships do use gravitic technology they still also use ion engines to provide forward and vectored thrust. A fully gravitic propulsion system is considerably more advanced and efficient than that. Though oddly the unknowns have no observed fusion technology, instead they've developed nuclear fission to a previously unheard of degree."

"So what does it mean, general?"

"It means ma'am that the alien warships would be considerably faster and much more manoeuvrable than anything of ours. If they employ that speed and agility advantage to the fullest then we would be hard pressed to defeat them," Lefcourt replied. "We need to know what we could be facing and we need to know it soon."

Levy sighed softly. "Then we better hope that Captain Jankowski gets some answers about our potential new adversary soon," she said.

"Yes ma'am. In the meantime I would like your authority to bring the fleet to a heightened state of alert."

Levy frowned slightly, that was a serious step to make. Especially as ISN was sure to catch onto it in short order and broadcast the news all over the Earth Alliance. Once that happened the other races were bound to catch onto something going on and match the heightened alert status with their own forces. Which was a recipe for disaster – especially with some of the more bad tempered and firebrand aliens like the Drazi. "You think that the aliens are likely to attack us soon," she asked.

"Given the immediate aggression they showed to the _Prometheus_ its very likely madam president. We should be prepared for an attack at any time."

Levy sighed; this was not a good situation to be in. Waiting for the possibility of attack, it would terrify the public all over the alliance once ISN broke the story – and she knew enough about their reports to know that they wouldn't let such things as planetary security and common sense to prevent them breaking the news. But from General Lefcourt's assessment she didn't really have a lot of choice but to agree.

"Very well general you may raise the level alert status amongst the fleet to defcon three," she said. "That should put all of our forces on a heightened state of alert without overly alarming the public."

"Yes madam president, thank you."

"I just hope your wrong about an attack general."

"So do I, madam president," Lefcourt replied. "Though if the unknown alien hostiles do indeed attack us then I'm sure I speak for all of Earth Force when I say that we'll be waiting to clean there chronometers."

Levy smiled. "I'm sure you will be, general," she said. "Is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment, madam president."

"Then you can go, general. Inform me immediately of anymore developments regarding this matter."

"Yes ma'am," Lefcourt replied standing up from his seat, coming to attention and offering his commander and chief a crisp salute. Before turning and leaving the office.

Alone once more Elizabeth Levy stood up and went to the window and looked out at the world beyond her office. The office was situated on the outer wall of the vast climate controlled dome that was the heart of the Earth Alliance government. It offered her an excellent view out over Geneva. Right now the sun had disappeared behind thick dark clouds and its was just beginning to snow.

It was a peaceful counterpoint to her turbulent thoughts. General Lefcourt's report had filled her with grave concern for the future, with only just over a month and a half to go till Christmas she couldn't help but wonder how this year was going to end. Was it going to end with the alliance still at the peace it had earned in the blood, fire and terror of the Dilgar War or would they be at war with a new and obviously hostile enemy.

She guessed that only time would tell.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter Three_**

**Commandants Office**

**Earth Force Orbital Base**

**Jericho IV, Sometime Later**

General Patrick Newman sighed softly as he finished reading through the formal orders that had recently arrived from Earth Force Command. Orders that confirmed the instructions and information that General Lefcourt had given him earlier via high priority, encrypted stellar comm. transmission. Now that he had the formal orders from Earth Force he would be able to act upon the information, he'd been given and the knowledge of what was tearing through hyperspace towards the Jericho System right now.

Captain Jankowski and the _Prometheus_, along with the _Persia_ and the exploration/survey vessel _Northern Horizon_ were inbound, escorting a refugee fleet from the first Code Sabre contact for twenty-three years. A refugee fleet that astoundingly was composed not of aliens but Humans, albeit Humans who spoke a dead language, which combined with the fact that they had come from beyond the rim of known space, made them an enigma. A potentially very dangerous enigma as there obvious enemies had already engaged Earth Force in battle inflicting serious damage to the _Prometheus_ and destroying the _Enola Gay_ with all hands. _I'm going to have to put out a message to all frontier fleet ships informing them of __Enola Gay's__ fate,_ he thought, _the men and women on that ship were there colleagues, their brothers and sisters in arms. They should hear about there deaths from me not over ISN as those bloodhounds are bound to find out about this soon._

Thinking about the frontier defence fleet that was based here at Jericho he couldn't help but wince. He knew that there would be a lot of grief and anger among the crews when they learned that _Enola Gay_ had been destroyed, vaporised with all hands by an alien nuke. The crews would want revenge and Newman wouldn't blame them, hell he wanted it himself, wanted to make whoever the alien monsters that destroyed _Enola Gay_ were understand that they could not go around nuking Earth Force ships into oblivion without enduring the most serious of consequences. _However, it's going to be impossible to get revenge,_ he thought, _not unless the aliens show themselves again. Thankfully, the order to bring the frontier defence fleet to defcon three is going to help there, but if only those murderers show themselves again._

After a few moments, he shook off his thoughts, reminding himself that he had a lot of work to do, before tapping the link on the back of his right hand. "C&C contact all Earth Force units in the sector and advise them to go to defcon three, also advise the captains that a full statement for their crews will follow shortly," he ordered. "Then have all base and shipyard senior officers' report to my office immediately."

"Aye sir," the lieutenant who was the duty officer in C&C answered.

"Then get me Governor Roberts on the planet," Newman added, even though he had a lot of resources up here in orbit both on his Orion-class space station and in the shipyards something told him that they would need access to the resources of the Jericho IV colony, especially the hospital, when the refugees arrived. "Tell him that it is a matter of the utmost urgency."

"Aye sir."

As the suddenly busy lieutenant signed off Newman leaned back in his chair and considered how he was going to explain everything to Governor Jason Roberts. The two of them didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on a great many things, they came from completely opposing sides of the political spectrum as well as completely different social backgrounds, which made things frequently very tense between them. He could only hope that the would-be senator didn't try to turn what was coming into a political issue. Roberts shouldn't but he wouldn't put it past the arrogant man to try.

After a few moments, the screen on his computer terminal changed from the main directory to the face of Governor Roberts back dropped by the window of his office, which gave a nice view out on Jericho City – the only settlement on the Earth-like Jericho IV so far. There was a sour expression on the governor's face, obviously he had been about to leave his office and didn't appreciate his plans being disrupted by an unexpected call from Earth Force an impression that was further enforced when Roberts spoke.

"Alright general what is so important that I had to delay my afternoon meeting schedule, there were important issues to discuss," Roberts snapped, annoyance dripping from his voice. _Important issues my ass,_ Newman thought knowing Roberts was really off to a fundraising meeting for his plans to be Jericho IV's first senator.

"Governor a situation has developed that is about to land on our respective laps," Newman replied keeping his voice calm and professional, letting none of his contempt for politicians in general – and the governor in particular – show. "There has been a Code Sabre contact situation involving the _Prometheus_."

Roberts face went still and the annoyance vanished as his eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing in concern. Like most politicians and senior military personnel, the governor was well aware that there hadn't been a Code Sabre contact situation for twenty-three years, since before Earth joined the war against the cruel, ruthless Dilgar.

"Go on," Roberts said.

Newman nodded and began carefully explaining the situation that the _Prometheus_ had encountered in The Eye and the refugee fleet that she was bringing to Jericho IV. As he spoke a frown of concern appeared on the governor's face.

"Are you equipped to handle so many refugees up there, general," Roberts asked.

"To be honest governor no, this is really going to strain my resources to breaking point. That's why I would like to use groundside medical facilities should the need arrive, from what little we know so far the refugees are going to be in quite a bad way having travelled for along time in ships that are slowly but surely falling apart."

"I will give the orders to make them available to you," Roberts answered promptly. "I'll also marshal up as many emergency supplies and personnel as can be spared ready for transport up to the fleet. It won't be much but anything is better than nothing."

"Indeed it is thank you."

"It's no difficulty. I am concerned however about the colonies security tell me general if the unknown forces that destroyed the _Enola Gay_ come here can you defend us effectively?"

"No need to worry there, governor," Newman answered. "Between the fleet and the orbital defence grid we could repel all bar a full scale assault. Even if the aliens mounted one we'd certainly be able to hold on long enough for reinforcements to arrive."

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me general I will start making the arrangements down here."

"Of course, governor."

Roberts nodded and broke the connection from his end. The main directory returned a moment before the office doors opened and Newman's senior staff came into the room.

"Please be seated," Newman, instructed them. "People we've got a bit of a situation heading our way. I don't have a lot of time to explain all this so I ask that you hold your questions until the end of this briefing."

"Yes sir," one of the officers replied for all of them as they sat down.

"Good. Okay here is what happened and what is going to happen."

* * *

**ISN Regional News Studio**

**Jericho City, Jericho IV**

**That Same Time**

Junior Interstellar Network news reporter Daniel Randall sat in stunned silence in the small cubicle that was his office. He could barely believe what he'd just heard over the tap the editor had managed to get installed in the comm. arrays of both the orbital station and the governor's office. They couldn't use the tap often or for long, not without Earth Force or the governor's security people spotting the illegal tap and beginning a trace – so it didn't often yield any useful or newsworthy information.

This time however it had.

Ironically, he'd almost missed it, another few minutes and he would have headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. Now he was glad that he'd taken the time to check the tap again and noticed that a high priority signal was coming in from General Newman's office on the orbital station to Governor Roberts's personal office. What he'd discovered when he'd listened in blew him away. There had been a Code Sabre contact situation, the first in over two Earth standard decades, and to make it even more interesting the contact involved Humans. It was going to be the story of the decade.

Moreover, it was all his.

That knowledge finally pierced through his stunned state and got him moving again. His hands quickly danced across his console, saving the recording of the conversation to a spare data crystal. After pocketing the crystal, he stood up. He would have to have a word with the editor but he had no doubt that he was about to break a big story; one that would get him a long overdue promotion and possibly even a flight on a transport back to Earth and the main ISN studios in Geneva.

Calmly hiding his nerves he walked through the small regional news office, ISN presence on this recently colonised world was so minimal that they only warranted two levels in a building that barely deserved to be called a skyscraper. Consequently, it didn't take long to reach the door to the editor's office nervously he knocked for admittance.

"Come in," a powerful voice called from inside.

"Hey chief you got a minute," Randall asked pushing open the door.

"Depends," Editor Kieran Bates, responded. "What do you want, Randall."

"I was monitoring the computer when I noticed a high priority call from General Newman to Governor Roberts," Randall answered. "I listened in," he took the crystal from his pocket. "This is what I found."

Curiosity peaked Bates accepted the data crystal, slotted it into a free port and played back the recording. Bates eyes widened in shock as he listened and heard the term Code Sabre it had been a long time since he'd heard that term. Shock turned into amazement and delight as the recording went on before morphing into horror and anger at the news of the _Enola Gay's_ destruction by nuclear weapon; before changing to shock again as the governor was informed that the frontier defence fleets all across the Earth Alliance were going to defcon three. Finally, silence reigned in the office once again, as the recording came to an end, reporter and editor lost in there own thoughts for a few moments.

"Very interesting," Bates said at last, swallowing a lump in his throat at the thought that after twenty years of peace Earth could once again be heading for war. "Put together a report, Randall. We're definitely going to put this on the news, after this, those spoiled folks in Geneva won't be sneering at us out here on the frontier anymore. Let them be jealous for a change."

Daniel Randall grinned at the prospect of getting one over on the somewhat snobbish reporters and correspondents back in Geneva. It would serve them right for exiling all of them to this backwater. "Yes sir," he said.

* * *

**Prometheus Shuttle**

**In Hyperspace Approaching Battlestar Galactica**

**A Short Time Later**

The first thing that occurred to Captain Michael Jankowski when he saw the battlestar _Galactica_ with his own eyes was that the ship looked like it had been through hell. The Colonial warships hull was in bad shape, badly scorched and pitted from weapons fire in more places than he could clearly count. The ship had clearly taken one heck of a pounding – possibly even repeated poundings – during its long flight from wherever it was beyond the rim that these so called Colonials came from. Given the amount of hull damage he could see it was amazing that the ship was still flying – an Earth Force ship with the same level of hull damage wouldn't be, in fact would have been destroyed long before reaching such a state.

Another thing he quickly noticed was how heavily armed the battlestar was, she literally bristled with hundreds of individual weapons arrays. Though the sensors on the _Prometheus_ had revealed that Colonial weapons were somewhat crude, they were just quaint old-fashioned rail and coil guns – the sheer number of them on board made the _Galactica_ one hell of a weapons platform. He was willing to bet that _Galactica_ could take on most warships from a number of the local races and kick there butts if she could get in the first strike.

As the pilot of his shuttle guided it in towards the ships port side hanger pod Jankowski carefully checked the seals on his environmental suit. Though the _Galactica's_ crew were Human he couldn't take the risk of exposing them to any bacterial or virus contamination that was on his body – as they might not be immune to the bugs that commonly made the rounds in the Earth Alliance, and vice versa. After all they'd probably been through the last thing he wanted to do was expose these people to a disease they had no defence against, he didn't want to be responsible for starting a plague. Until he was, certain it was safe he would wear the suit.

Satisfied that all was in order with the suit he made sure his translator was ready. The fact that they didn't speak the same language was going to make things a little difficult between Earth Alliance and these Colonials. _At least till these Colonials pick up Standard English and stop speaking an obsolete language,_ Jankowski thought to himself the shuttle crossed into the bay and landed on an illuminated platform.

Immediately Jankowski got a shock, when he felt his body being pulled firmly down into his seat, not being kept from floating away by a seatbelt. _These people have artificial gravity,_ he thought in astonishment as he felt his full bodyweight for the first time in nearly a week. Earth had long sought the secret of generating a viable artificial gravity field onboard ship, it would extend the times ships could stay in space massively. The Dilgar had had the technology and they'd been examining it on captured Dilgar ships for years, trying to reverse engineer it, but so far, all attempts had failed. _EarthGov and Earth Force Command are definitely going to be after this technology,_ he thought knowing how much a boon artificial gravity technology would be. Especially as it was probably very energy efficient as _Prometheus'_ sensors had confirmed that _Galactica's_ power signature was considerably lower than most Earth ships and that _Galactica_ – like the alien warships that had destroyed the _Enola Gay_ – was being powered by some kind of nuclear fission reactor with some kind of chemical reactors providing an additional source of power.

After a moment, he became aware that the shuttle was moving downwards, that the illuminated landing pad was a lift that was carrying them into the _Galactica's_ interior. _Here we go,_ he thought releasing his restraint and standing up, _I hope that these Colonials are prepared to tell me who attacked my ship and killed five hundred and fifty-six people under my command back at the Eye. I suppose only time will tell._

* * *

President Laura Roslin felt butterflies of nerves fluttering about in her stomach as accompanied by Admiral Adama she watched the shuttle from the Earth ship being towed into a docked position by one of the tractors. She knew that the meeting that she and Admiral Adama would soon be having with Captain Jankowski was a historic meeting, for the first time in four thousand years or more members of all thirteen tribes would meet face to face, reunited again after so long apart.

A lot was riding on the meeting. For so long the people of the Colonial Remnant had pinned there hopes and dreams on the Thirteenth Tribe. This first face-to-face meeting since the Earth ships had pulled there collective tails out the fire at the Ionian Nebula – giving the Cylons a very bloody nose in the process – would determine the Remnant's fate. Whether the scattered, scarred survivors of the Colonies of Kobol would be safe under the Thirteenth Tribes protection – the performance of the Earth ships a few hours ago now clearly showed that the Thirteenth possessed the power to deter Cylon aggression – or if they would be cast adrift. Doomed to wander the stars for all eternity.

The Earth shuttle came to a stop and in an effort to distract herself from the nervousness, blossoming inside Laura eyed it curiously. It was an unusual design a sleek, rounded triangular shape with short stubby wings, and three large bell-like thrusters at the back. It was obviously designed to fly both in atmosphere and in space in the same way that there own shuttles were, though she had to admit the design of the _Prometheus_ shuttle was a nice change from the box design of a Colonial shuttle.

For a moment, the shuttle remained motionless, then with a humming sound, a ramp deployed from its dull grey hull. It made contact with the _Galactica's_ deck with a soft clang of metal on metal. Schooling her features into a calm mask he adjusted her jacket – while silently regretting she didn't have anything decent to wear, this suit was getting really battered now – and watched as a hatch slid open.

Then a man appeared and started down the ramp, moving with a strange awkwardness as if he wasn't used to artificial gravity. Which seemed a little odd given how technologically powerful the Thirteenth Tribe seemed to be if their weapons capabilities were anything to go by.

It was hard to make out precise details of the man. He was dressed in what was obviously a flight suit and wearing a helmet that could have easily belonged to a Colonial pilot, as the design was so eerily similar. Through the faceplate, she saw his face clearly; he had brown eyes and short mousy hair that was also brown. Slight lines in his face showed the burden that he was under; there was no doubt that the man was Captain Jankowski.

Standing beside her Admiral Adama cleared his throat before stepping forward. "Captain Jankowski," he asked.

The figure nodded and raised a hand and in it, Laura noticed a strange ball-like object. Jankowski said something in a language that she didn't understand, only for the ball to pulse white.

"Yes," Jankowski's voice said from the sphere speaking bad Colonial Standard. "Are you Admiral Adama?"

"I am," William replied.

Jankowski smiled. "It is a pleasure to meet you face to face," he said, the translator echoing his words a few milliseconds later. "We have much to discuss."

William Adama smiled slightly, liking the attitude he was getting. Clearly, Captain Jankowski was not one for beating about the bush and just wanted to get down to the business that had brought him here. He supposed if he were in the captains position he would be acting the same way, after all the man had saved all of there lives. At the cost of one of his owns ships and the lives of the hundreds of people that had probably been on board it.

"That we do," he agreed before gesturing to Laura. "Allow me to present, Laura Roslin, president of the twelve colonies."

"Hello, captain," Laura replied stepping forward and offering a hand. "It is a great pleasure to meet you the contact with your ships has given us cause for hope. Though I wish to extend my sympathies for those you lost on the ship the Cylons destroyed."

"Thank you, madam president," Jankowski replied bringing himself to attention as well as he could with a translator in his hand, it was the only proper response he could give to a head of state. At the same time he made a note of the word Cylons – clearly the name of there mysterious new missile loving adversary. "Though I don't understand why the Cylons opened fire on us the way they did."

"It's a long and complicated story," William replied. "Though the quick answer is they attacked because your Human and the Cylons are programmed to kill Humans, they will not rest until every last Human in the universe is dead."

"Programmed," Jankowski, repeated. "Are the Cylons machines then?"

"Yes and no," William admitted. "Like I said its complicated though there objective isn't. They intend to destroy all Thirteen Tribes of Man. They already destroyed our colonies, nuked them flat in less than a day. Billions died, the people in this fleet are all that's left."

"Dear God," Jankowski whispered to softly for the translator to pick up. He was horrified at the thought of billions of Humans being slaughtered in mere hours, wiped from existence in a blaze of nuclear fire. It was a horror that could be barely envisioned, but it had happened to these people from what the admiral was saying. If it were true then the Cylons were no better than the Dilgar. That was when something else the admiral had said finally registered with him.

"What do you mean by Thirteen Tribes of Man," he asked and noticed the looks of surprise and confusion that appeared on the faces of the admiral and the president alike. "What?"

"You are from the Thirteenth Tribe correct, from Earth," Roslin asked, feeling dread beginning to settle in her stomach.

"I'm from Earth yes to be specific I'm from Canton, Ohio. But I've never heard of anything of humanity having thirteen tribes."

William Adama and Laura Roslin both frowned and exchanged looks of concern. This was something they had never anticipated, that the Thirteenth Tribe wouldn't remember who they were or where they were from. That was going to make things difficult, especially if the more religiously inclined of their people got wind of the fact that the Thirteenth Tribe didn't remember Kobol, which was very likely to happen in the very public environment of the hanger bay. It was therefore imperative that they take this discussion to a more suitable location before proceeding further.

"I see," William replied at last. "It's a long story."

"We're twelve hours from Jericho Four's jump gate," Jankowski answered. "We appear to have plenty of time."

"Then please come with us and we can explain things," William said before asking the question that had been bothering him since the moment the _Prometheus'_ master had stepped out of his shuttle. "By the way why are you wearing a spacesuit? The environment on this ship is perfectly safe."

"It's for your protection and mine, admiral," Jankowski answered. "I don't want to run the risk of exposing you to any bugs or viruses that I might be carrying that could prove devastating to you if you have no immunity to them. The reverse is also true. History tells me how very easily it can happen and how devastating it can be."

"I see that is very thoughtful of you," Roslin replied, what Captain Jankowski had said made sense when you really thought about it. Earth had been separated from the other Twelve Colonies of Kobol for four thousand years or more – it was hard to be certain how long it had actually been as the sacred scrolls were cryptic about the exact time of Kobol's demise and the exodus of the Thirteen Tribes. Who knew what bacteria and viruses the people of Earth had encountered in that time and become immune to but which the people in the Colonial Remnant would have no defence against? An illness that could be common on Earth could prove devastating to the people of the fleet and vice versa.

"Please come this way," William Adama, said before leading the way off the hanger deck, Jankowski took a deep breath and followed the older man. Something told him he was about to get answers that would only lead to more questions, questions that he wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer to. Nevertheless, he was here now and General Lefcourt had ordered that he get answers so he would listen to what Admiral Adama and President Roslin had to say, however bizarre or confusing it turned out to be.

Laura Roslin brought up the rear of their little procession as they made their way up off the bustling hanger deck towards one of the crossover corridors to the battlestars main hull. The fact that the Thirteenth Tribe didn't seem to remember Kobol – if Captain Jankowski's reaction was anything to go by – did not sit that well with her. Some massive catastrophe must have befallen them in the past, a catastrophe that had wiped out their true history. It was a turn of events that could have never been anticipated, and it was going to make relations that much more difficult to establish.

After a moment's thought, she sighed in resignation. The last three years had been nothing but hardship for all of them, overcoming the hurdle of the Thirteenth Tribe not knowing who they were was just the latest obstacle put in their way. They would overcome it as they had all the obstacles and challenges before them. They had to, as the only alternative would be to sit in space and let the Cylons leisurely blast them from the sky.

And that was unacceptable.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

**That Same Time**

The solar system that was home to the ancient, dark world of Z'ha'dum was a barren, silent place, seemingly devoid of any form of sentient life. Few spacefaring races ever even attempted to make the journey to Z'ha'dum – even those species who were technologically advanced enough to detect and bypass the powerful, ancient defence systems seeded throughout the sector by the Shadows. Across the galaxy species knew unconsciously that Z'ha'dum was a forbidden place, a haunt of darkness that would consume anyone who dared to land on the planet from which the system took its name.

Abruptly the systems long silence was disturbed as sixty-five thousand kilometres out from the word of Z'ha'dum space abruptly warped and distorted. Two glowing blue funnels of energy burst into existence with silent roars of power. Out of the rents ripped in the fabric of space came a small fleet of ships, the jump points folding closed behind them as if they had never been present at all.

Anyone who saw the fleet of ships would have though them elegant and beautiful. Dozens of small tri-winged fighters constructed of a light blue polycrystalline material darted with effortless grace around two massive capital ships. Moving in closer formation with the two capital ships were small, sleek armed transports and gun ships that looked more like aquatic animals than spaceships. All of them however were dwarfed by the two capital vessels, each was a massive ship over sixteen hundred metres long and close on a kilometre tall. To Human eyes, the ships would have resembled angelfish crossed with some gigantic ribbed whale. Each was covered with projections that marked them as warships. Warships that were a combination of elegance and predatory fierceness, a combination that would strike fear and awe into almost anyone they encountered.

Propelled by their gravitic propulsion systems the two Minbari war cruisers glided towards Z'ha'dum with an effortless grace that would fill most species with undisguised envy as every movement of the cruisers and there escorts proclaimed the technological supremacy of the Minbari for all to see. Invisibly, silently the powerful and sophisticated sensors on the two cruisers reached out across space and began probing the area around Z'ha'dum – searching for any sign that the dark ones they had fought a thousand years ago were beginning to return her as had long ago been prophesised by the greatest of them to ever live.

* * *

Deep within the slightly larger of the two war cruisers, a vessel called the _Valen'tha_, a mysterious – even to the Minbari – group of individuals wearing hooded dark grey robes stood in a darkened room. Each figure stood in the centre of a cone of blue light – the light cones being the only illumination in the entire chamber. Which suited them as it reminded them constantly of there role, the role Valen himself had chosen for them a thousand years ago, the role to stand between the candle and the star. To be neither of the darkness or of the light, but to be of the middle, to be of the grey.

A tenth figure appeared out of the darkness of the chamber, moving to a tenth cone of light in the centre of the ring of nine formed by the others. Unlike his fellow members of the Grey Council he didn't wear the dark grey robes of there office, instead he wore simple white and cream coloured robes. In one hand, he held a silver staff topped with a strange triangular device known to the Minbari as a triluminary, the staff and triluminary were the symbol of his office, of his position over all Minbari everywhere. His name was Dukhat, and he was known as the chosen one, the leader of the Grey Council and the supreme leader of all Minbari.

Silence reigned in the great chamber of the Grey Council, its members standing silent and proud seemingly assured in their power and position. Nothing could be further from the truth, to a soul all of them were nervous about being here at Z'ha'dum – the place from which the ancient nemesis known only as the Shadows had come.

For a few moments nothing happened then a shimmering curtain of energy came down around the assembled council, and resolved into a three dimensional holographic projection of the space outside their mighty ship, making it feel almost like they were standing in the void. Ahead of them floated the dark world they had come to investigate, a world that had not been seen by Minbari eyes in many generations.

"There appears to be nothing here," Satai Morann of the Warrior Caste said softly, removing his hood as protocol demanded so he could address the rest of the council. "This place appears dead, the Shadows are not here."

"This voyage is a waste of our time," Satai Coplann, also of the Warrior Caste, agreed removing his own hood. "The prophecy does not appear to be true, the Shadows are..."

"We should not be so quick to pass judgement," Satai Rathenn, of the Religious Caste pointed out as he slipped off his own hood. "We must do a thorough examination of this system before we can make any kind of judgement regarding the return of the Shadows."

"Satai Rathenn is correct," Hedronn – the third and final Warrior Caste Satai, – said. "It is too soon to make any judgements. We must proceed as planned." Morann scowled and was about to open his mouth to object when a soft crystalline chime stopped him in his tracks.

"Satai Dukhat," the voice of Shai Alyt Branmer echoed in the chamber, coming from the bridge far above the council chamber.

"Yes, Shai Alyt," Dukhat answered speaking for the first time since they had emerged from hyperspace.

"Primary scans of Z'ha'dum have been completed," Branmer reported. "The sensors are picking up a number of active power sources both on and beneath the surface of the planet."

"Identify power source."

"Power source is of unknown type and origin," Branmer's voice answered a second before musical alarms sounded throughout the ship. "Satai our sensors have detected ships moving towards us on an intercept course. Unknown configuration."

"Show us," Morann commanded.

"At once, Satai."

The holographic display shimmered for a moment then changed to show the ships that were approaching the small Minbari task force. There were two capital ships; their hulls were made of an amber coloured material that gleamed slightly where it caught the light of the systems distant sun. Strangely, curved edges near the aft sections glowed with a shimmering blue light obviously the engines of the three ships. Each ship was huge nearly three kilometres long but didn't seem to mount obvious weapons turrets or beam projectors in the way the Minbari ships did.

Flying along in front of the three massive ships was a literal swarm of small fighter sized vessels. Almost dart-like in form the fighters had a strange blue crystal in their bows and were made of the same amber-coloured material as the bigger ships. All of them advanced upon the Minbari ships with confident arrogance and deadly purpose.

"Satai Dukhat our sensors are picking up a sharp energy surge," Branmer reported. "Unknown ships are powering up their weapons, we are being targeted."

Morann frowned. "Are our stealth systems working," he asked.

"Perfectly Satai, the unknown ships sensors are just burning through as if our stealth fields don't exist."

"Open gun ports and bring weapons systems online," Dukhat instructed. "And prepare to transfer additional power to recharging the jump engines."

"Yes, Satai."

"Is that necessary it is only two ships," Morann asked. "We should be able to defeat them easily."

Dukhat scowled at the warrior's arrogant confidence. He started to open his mouth to remind the younger Minbari that it was only a fool who underestimated an enemy. But no words were heard as for at that, moment there came a dull rumbling boom and the _Valen'tha_ rocked violently.

* * *

Silently the fleet of unknown fighters accompanied by two capital vessels of there own moved towards the Minbari vessels that had dared to violate there masters domain. The Shadows were still away or asleep, they were vulnerable and reliant on them to protect them until the Time of Awakening.

The presence of the Minbari now was concerning as it meant the Minbari suspected that after a thousand years of silence the Shadows were returning, but fortunately it was only two war cruisers and there support ships. To a soul the crews on the Drakh cruisers and raiders were confident that they would crush the Minbari infidels quickly – ensuring that the secret that there masters were preparing to return would stay just that a secret.

The first squadrons of raiders crossed an invisible line in space and immediately opened fire upon the Minbari. From the blue crystal in the nose of each raider erupted a brilliant, shimmering blue energy beam that sliced silently across space to smash into the Minbari cruisers despite the best efforts of the Minbari stealth technology to disrupt the Drakh sensors. Fired from extreme range the raiders quantum particle beams did no harm to the cruisers, beyond shaking both vessels, the energy of the beams being effortlessly dispersed across the hull of the war cruisers by there gravitic defence fields.

Despite being startled by the accurate fire, despite there stealth technology's best efforts, the Minbari reacted quickly. The screen of Niall-class fighters that had been buzzing around the cruisers broke formation and advanced upon the Drakh raiders – slender yellow-green fusion laser beams shooting forth from each of there triple gun arrays. Three raiders instantly crumpled and exploded in brilliant fireballs as they took multiple strikes. The other raiders ignored the loss and continued towards the Minbari, even as some of there number broke formation to engage the Minbari fighters.

As the fighters and some of the raiders began dog-fighting, yellow-green and blue beams flashing back and forth and occasionally resulting in a fighter or raider going up in a brilliant fireball, the remaining raiders fired upon the cruisers for the second time. Once again, there beams did no damage to the Minbari – the gravitic screens absorbing and dispersing most of the energy of the beams over a wider area to dissipate back out into space, this time however, some energy got through to strike the polycrystalline armour covering the cruisers metal skins. Instantly the armour soaked up the energy, dispersing it and like the gravitic defence field radiating it back out into space.

Instantly the cruisers secondary weapons arrays responding, slamming out fusion laser beams and bolts of coherent electromagnetic energy from electro-pulse arrays, even as additional Niall squadrons emerged from the noses of the war cruisers. Dozens of Drakh raiders vanished from existence being wiped from the sky with effortless ease by the powerful Minbari weapons. The remaining raiders veered off – trying to move out of the angle of fire of the capital ship guns – only to be pounced on by the Niall's and gun ships that tore into them with a vengeance.

For a moment, the battle swung against the Drakh as the raider assault was driven back, pushed away from the war cruisers by an intense wall of firepower. Then the slower Drakh cruisers came into firing range themselves and instantly opened up. Wider and brighter quantum particle beams blasted forth from there main cannons while smaller pulse cannons began firing at the fighters and gun ships, swatting several from the sky immediately.

The beams from the Drakh cruisers smashed into both Minbari ships with white-hot force, but in a testament to the engineering skills of the Minbari, the gravitic shielding blunted the weapon impacts, absorbing seventy percent of the beams energy. The remaining energy of the beams slammed into the polycrystalline armour and was immediately absorbed and dispersed though small carbon scoring appeared on the armour as a thin film of polycrystalline material burned away at the points of impact.

Both the _Valen'tha_ and the companion cruiser the _Ingata_ shuddered violently with the attacks but immediately retaliated with the neutron beam cannons that were there main armament. Emerald green beams of raw power and with bores measured in metres smashed into the Drakh cruisers – ripping through there own gravitic defences to flay at the armoured hulls. Both Drakh ships visibly shook with the impacts even as plumes of molten metal erupted from there hulls as the neutron beams attacked the metal at the sub-molecular level tearing atoms apart.

Startled and much more respectful now the Drakh cruisers changed tactics. There pulse arrays ceased firing upon the Niall's, giving the pilots time to start re-establishing shattered formations and instead fired upon the war cruisers, simultaneously both cruisers fired there main quantum beams again – this time focusing all fire on the _Ingata_ while sending energy pulse after energy pulse into the _Valen'tha_.

The combined beams smashed into the _Ingata_, sending plumes of melting crystalline material into space as the powerful beams overwhelmed the polycrystalline materials deflection and absorption capabilities. Even as she rocked violently and visibly with the impact, the _Ingata_ hit back, neutron beams smashing into a single Drakh cruiser tearing away huge chunks of armour but failing to penetrate to the hull underneath.

The _Ingata_ struck again with her neutron beams and this time her secondary fusion lasers added their own formidable firepower to the assault, every beam firing upon the same cruiser. Drakh armour shattered and vaporised allowing the powerful Minbari weapons to cut into the hull beneath. Jets of molten material and escaping atmosphere shot out of the gashes ripped in the side of the ship. Though now heavily damaged the Drakh cruiser refused to give up and with its companion fired its main quantum beam cannon at the _Ingata_ once again.

Crystalline armour shattered and vaporised allowing the beams and energy pulses to burn deep into the core of the Minbari warship. Secondary explosions erupted throughout the _Ingata_, burning and severely damaged the Sharlin-class cruiser began to tumble helplessly out of control. Sensing victory both Drakh cruisers fired upon the near helpless _Ingata _again, twin beams of blue death burning right into the very heart of the vessel, the artificial quantum singularity that powered the ship, rupturing the containment field with devastating results.

In a titanic blast of energy and fire, the _Ingata_ disintegrated as its singularity blinked out of existence, releasing all of its energy in a single cataclysmic burst of energy and hard radiation that tore the whole ship apart in an instant.

No sooner than the blast of the _Ingata's_ violent death faded than another explosion shattered space as the _Valen'tha_ hit the already damaged alien warship with a full alpha strike from every weapon that it could bring to bear. Under the immense concentrated firepower of a Shagotti-class war cruiser the damaged ship had no chance, it broke in half midway down its length before exploding.

* * *

**Grey Council Chamber**

**Minbari War Cruiser Valen'tha**

Dukhat and the members of the Grey Council stumbled as the shudder of another direct hit ran through the _Valen'tha's_ deck as the remaining alien cruiser slammed another searing beam into the side of the ship. Around them, the holographic display momentarily flickered as the energy of the blast shot through the ship causing brief disruptions in the energy distribution grid.

To a soul, they were enraged by the destruction of the _Ingata_, though it had answered the question that had brought them here. The Shadows weren't back yet, but they were returning exactly as Valen had foretold, the alien ships that were attacking them had to be allies of the Shadows. There was no other explanation for the immediate and deliberate attack on them and the ease with which their antagonists destroyed the _Ingata_.

Silently they watched in satisfaction as the _Valen'tha's_ more powerful weapons tore into the remaining cruiser, neutron beams and fusion lasers wounding it cruelly where they breached its armour.

* * *

Severely damaged by the _Valen'tha's_ assault the Drakh cruiser remained defiant, slamming another beam into the Shagotti-class ships side, breaching armour and rupturing outer and inner hull plates in a forty-metre long gash in the ships starboard flank below the dorsal drive fin. The _Valen'tha_ shook violently as explosive decompression tore through the affected compartments and triggered a cascade of fires and secondary explosions in surrounding areas.

Though wounded the _Valen'tha_ lashed out again with her main guns, fierce green neutron beams tearing into her enemy. The Drakh ship crumpled under the blows as the beams tore apart a number of key structural braces and power conduits. Secondary and tertiary explosions erupted and a ripple seeming to pass along its length opening breaches that allowed gas fed flames to lick at open space. Another neutron beam hit and the dying cruiser came apart, disintegrating in a massive explosion.

The last of the Drakh capital ships dealt with the _Valen'tha_ turned to assist the Niall fighters that were still bitterly engaged with the raiders. Secondary weapons arrays on the mighty Shagotti came alive, sending out short bursts from either fusion lasers or electro-pulse guns. Each shot striking and destroying an enemy fighter. In seconds it was all over with the last Drakh raider being sliced in half by a Niall fighter's fusion laser burst.

* * *

Silence reigned in the chamber of the Grey Council as they studied the dispersing debris clouds that were all that remained of their attackers, a number of Nail's and of course the _Ingata_.

"It appears we have our answer," Satai Delenn said at last removing her hood exposing a face that was extremely youthful even by Minbari standards. Indeed, she was the youngest person ever to be chosen to serve as one of the nine, it was a testament to the abilities that she had, abilities that Dukhat himself had spotted and nurtured until she was ready to become one of the nine. "The prophecy is true, the Shadows will soon return."

"That is the only conclusion that can be drawn," Satai Coplann, admitted reluctantly, being Warrior Caste, he had never really believed in the Prophecy of Valen, until now that was. These aliens whoever they were had given them a formidable fight and had no doubt inflicted considerable damage to the _Valen'tha_ as well as destroying the _Ingata_, there was no doubt in his mind now that they were indeed allies of the Shadows. After a thousand years the dark ones were returning and as this battle had proven the Minbari – the chosen soldiers of the light – were not ready to oppose them.

"We shall return to Minbar," Dukhat said, though he had already known from the Vorlons that the allies of the Shadows were starting to gather here at Z'ha'dum it was still a surprise how powerful they were. "We have much preparation to make, including reinforcing the Anla'shok for the war ahead."

One by one, the nine bowed indicating their agreement and Dukhat raised his voice slightly to activate the internal communication system. "Shai Alyt Branmer," he said. "Recall all Niall's and set course back to Minbar, maximum speed. We have found out what we needed to know."

"Yes Satai," Branmer answered.

* * *

Elsewhere on the _Valen'tha_ in the dark chamber that was Dukhat's private sanctum two beings of light floated in the air. Had any of the crew come in they would have dropped to their knees in awe at the presence of the two Vorlons, though the waves of confusion and concern coming off the two angelic beings would have had them deeply concerned.

"The Circle is changed," Kosh Ulkesh said softly.

"Yes," Kosh Narenek answered stunned by the revelation that something had inexplicably changed about the Circle. An unknown new factor was at play, a factor that had led the Minbari into a battle with the Drakh that they shouldn't have had to fight yet. They should have encountered the Humans before getting this far, but they hadn't.

Kosh Narenek was both irritated and intrigued by the change to the Circle. While a new factor was not entirely welcome, Vorlons didn't like surprises after all, he knew there was nothing they could do about it. The universe was a capricious but not directionless thing, if it had done this changed the Circle then there had to be a reason.

"We must intervene," Ulkesh said.

"No."

"But the Circle."

"What is meant to be will be," Kosh answered. "If the Circle is meant to hold it will adapt and hold, if it is not then what will be will be."

"We will not intervene."

"Yes."

"Very well, but we will continue to watch and wait."

"Yes."


End file.
